THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


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p 


THE 


TOBACCO    PROBLEM 


BY 


META    LANDER 

AUTHOR  OF  "THE  BROKEN  BUD,"  "LIGHT  ON  THE  DARK 
RIVER,"  "  MARION  GRAHAM,"  ETC. 


FIFTH  EDITION,   ENLARGED 


BOSTON 

LEE  AND   SHEPARD,  PUBLISHERS 

10  Milk  Street 


Copyright, 

By  Margaret  Woods  Lawrence. 

1885. 


PRESS   OF  J.   J.   ARAKELYAN, 
I48  AND   150  PEARL  STREET,    BOSTON,    MASS. 


37/ 


HV 


TO  YOU, 

MY    YOUNG    COUNTRYWOMEN, 

i  dedicate  this  book, 

because  the  solution  of  the  tobacco  problem 
lies  very  much  in  your  hands. 
a  cause  which  aims  to  lift  so  fearful  a 
burden,  to  remove  so  terrible  an 
evil,  is  worthy  of  your  warm- 
est efforts,  your  most 
skilful  advocacy. 

Margaret  Woods  Lawrence- 
Linden  Home,  Marblehead. 


420.T?-'* 


"  I  do  not  place  my  individual  self  in  opposition  to  tobacco,  but 
science,  in  the  form  of  physiology  and  hygiene,  is  opposed  to  it ; 
and  science  is  the  expression  of  God's  will  in  the  government  of 
his  work  in  the  universe." 

"  Every  interest  of  purity,  dignity,  and  honor  should  lead  every 
woman  and  every  maiden  to  set  her  face  and  her  whole  example 
against  everything  that  is  of  the  passions,  everything  that  is  of 
the  appetites,  which  leads  into  peril." 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE  TO  THE  FIFTH 
EDITION. 


In  bringing  out  the  present  edition  of  "The 
Tobacco  Problem,"  I  desire  to  say  that,  while  I 
have  taken  tobacco  for  my  text,  I  have  included 
all  other  narcotics,  especially  those  used,  at  first, 
under  medical  prescription  and  continued  until  the 
servant  becomes,  not  only  a  master,  but  a  tyrant. 

I  wish  also  to  acknowledge  the  great  kindness 
with  which  my  book  has  been  received,  even  by 
many  devotees  of  the  weed.  I  had  hardly  expected 
such  a  degree  of  sufferance.  It  is  true  that,  out- 
spoken as  I  have  been,  I  have  set  down  naught  in 
malice,  and  have  aimed  to  avoid  unfair  and  unwar- 
ranted statements.  Yet  I  am  aware  that  it  is  well- 
nigh  impossible  for  one  with  strong  convictions  as 
to  the  use  of  narcotics,  to  write  a  treatise  on  the 
subject  which  will  not  seem,  perhaps  to  a  large 
class,  unreasonable  and  extravagant,  if  not  absurd. 
Judging  from  the  indications,  the  majority  in 
Church  and  State  are  against  me.  Asrain  and 
again  have  I  been  told  that  I  injure  the  cause  by 
demanding  too  much ;  that  it  is  the  abuse  and  not 
the  proper  use  of  tobacco  against  which  I  should 
direct  my  efforts. 

The  same  charges  have  long  been  rung  against 


VI  PREFACE    TO   FIFTH    EDITION. 

those  who  plead  for  total  abstinence  from  intoxi- 
cating liquors.  Such  persons  assert  that  temper- 
ance means  "the  moderate  use  of  all  these  good 
things  ;  "  that  it  is  really  intemperance  to  insist  on 
entire  abstinence.  I  can  only  reply  that  in  many 
cases  the  tobacco  users  with  whom  I  have  conversed 
frankly  concede  that  the  habit,  however  limited,  is 
not  only  foolish  but  injurious,  and  that  they  wish 
themselves  well  rid  of  it. 

On  the  other  hand,  not  a  few  insist  that  their  use 
of  tobacco  is  moderate,  even  when  physicians  and 
friends  are  alarmed  by  their  excessive  indulgence. 
It  is  very  hard  for  such  smokers,  perhaps  indeed 
for  smokers  generally,  to  admit  that  they  smoke 
too  much.  Is  not  this  an  evidence  that  the  tobacco 
habit  impairs  the  judicial  faculty? 

I  have  discussed  this  subject  with  more  than  one 
excellent  clergyman  who  assert  that  their  temperate 
use  of  the  "divine  weed"  is  not  only  harmless,  but 
really  beneficial.  May  I  not  respectfully  refer 
back  the  subject  to  these  preachers  of  self-denial 
for  a  fuller  consideration  ? 

That  there  may  not  be  exceptions  to  the  rule 
governing  the  habitual  use  of  narcotics,  I  dare  not 
insist.  But  if  such  exceptions  exist,  are  they  not 
so  rare  that  they  may  almost  be  regarded  as 
strengthening  the  general  rule  ? 

C  (DC 

Totally  apart,  however,  from  the  more  or  less 
injurious  results,  physical  and  intellectual,  of  the 
tobacco  habit,  arises  the  question  whether,  in  an 


PREFACE    TO   FIFTH   EDITION.  VII 

ethical  view,  the  yielding  to  such  a  habit  is  worthy 
of  one's  better  self —  is  not,  indeed,  a  lowering  of 
the  moral  tone. 

Says  Archdeacon  Farrar :  "  It  seems  to  me  that, 
when  man  has  so  many  natural  wants,  it  is  not 
desirable  to  add  to  them  another  want,  which  can 
only  be  regarded  as  artificial. " 

Governed  by  the  same  principle,  Sir  Isaac  New- 
ton refused  to  smoke,  "because  he  would  make  no 
necessities  for  himself." 

Is  there  not  sound  philosophy  in  what  Tolstoi 
writes  :  w  It  is  incumbent  upon  us,  as  far  as  in  us 
lies,  to  surround  ourselves  and  others  with  the 
conditions  most  favorable  to  that  precision  and 
clearness  of  thought  which  are  so  indispensable  to 
the  proper  working  of  our  consciousness  ;  and  we 
should  certainly  refrain  most  scrupulously  from 
hindering  and  clogging  this  action  of  consciousness 
by  the  consumption  of  brain-clouding  stimulants 
and  narcotics. " 

Is  not  compliance  with  any  doubtful  indulgence 
weakening  to  the  moral  sense  ?  Must  not  contin- 
uance in  such  indulgence  by  one  who  admits  that 
it  is  foolish  and  injurious,  check  his  religious  aspir- 
ations, and  bring  him  down  to  a  low,  earthy  level? 
Are  those  who  make  self-indulgence  their  law  fitted 
as  good  soldiers  for  the  real  battle  of  life  ?  —  espe- 
cially as  leaders  of  those  who  are  pressing  by 
thousands  into  the  ranks  ? 

I  desire  to  express  my  indebtedness  to  all  those 


Ylll  PREFACE    TO    FIFTH    EDITION. 

who  have  strengthened  my  hands  and  cheered  my 
heart  in  my  difficult  and  often  discouraging  work. 
A  few  who  most  generously  aided  me  at  the  out- 
set—  William  E.  Dodge,  Sr.,  of  New  York,  Elizur 
Wright  of  Boston,  William  Hyde  of  Ware,  and 
President  Fairchild  of  Berea, —  have  all  passed  to 
a  higher  field  of  labor.  Are  there  any  who  will 
take  their  places? 

I  am  also  under  obligation  to  many,  including 
physicians,  both  in  our  own  and  other  lands,  for 
their  testimonies  and  encouragement.  Particularly 
would  I  pay  my  warm  tribute  of  thanks  to  my 
good  friends,  Dr.  John  Ellis  of  Xew  York  and  Dr. 
Charles  C.  Drysdale,  senior  surgeon  of  the  Metro- 
politan Hospital,  London,  —  not  only  for  the  val- 
uable information  they  have  given  me,  but  for 
their  unwearied  sympathy  and  kindness. 

Let  me  add  that  it  was  not  at  hap-hazard  that 
this  book  was  dedicated  to  my  country-women,  and 
that  every  year  strengthens  the  conviction  that  I 
made  no  mistake  in  this.  I  have  seen  enough  of 
the  effects,  on  the  one  hand,  not  merely  of  the  con- 
doning, but  of  the  self-complacent  approval,  of  this 
narcotic  barbarian,  this  insidious  but  desperate 
defier  of  aesthetics,  by  thoughtless  and  sometimes 
frivolous  women,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  of  the 
decided  and  unfaltering  stand  against  it  on  the 
part  of  intelligent,  conscientious  women, — I  have 
seen  enough  of  all  this  to  convince  me  a  hundred 


PREFACE    TO   FIFTH    EDITION.  ix 

times  over  of  the  potency  of  woman's  influence  in 
this  as  in  other  matters. 

If  all  our  women  would  combine  in  kindly  but 
earnest  and  unwavering  warfare  against  this  to- 
bacco necromancer,  there  is  not  a  question  but  he 
would  be  slain.  Think  of  the  multitudes  who 
would  thus  be  forever  freed  from  their  degrading 
bondage ! 

Will  the  women  do  it? 

Margaret  Woods  Lawrence. 

Linden  Home,  Marblehead. 


HISTORICAL  SKETCH. 


THE    AMERICAN    ONE     MAN    AXTI-TOBACCO     SOCIETY. 

This  society,  which  was  born  in  1848,  was,  I  be- 
lieve, the  first  for  this  cause  ever  known  in  the 
world.  Its  founder,  George  Trask,  by  a  slavery 
to  the  weed  of  more  than  twenty  years,  was  brought 
to  the  gates  of  death.  Looking  to  God  for  help, 
he  broke  from  its  bondage.  In  his  own  words, 
"Its  renunciation  lifted  a  loathsome  incubus  from 
my  soul.  I  came  back  to  a  normal  condition  of 
body  and  mind.  I  ran,  I  leaped  for  joy,  and 
sometimes  my  gratitude  to  God  for  the  return  of 
health  was  so  intense  that  I  was  overwhelmed  and 
wept  like  a  child." 

In  all  the  enthusiasm  of  a  fresh  convert,  George 
Trask  began  to  labor  with  his  neighbors,  and  final- 
ly consecrated  himself  to  this  work,  in  which  he 
continued  through  life,  undeterred  by  the  greatest 
obstacles. 

In  giving  his  experience  sometime  after  he  says  : 

"My  clerical  brethren  have  treated  me  in  a  style 
somewhat  diverse.  Some  have  heartily  bid  me 
Godspeed;  some  —  votaries  of  the  weed  —  have- 
eyed  me  askance,  and,  I  presume,  wished  me  in 
Japan.  Some  have  played  the  captious  critic — 
laughed  at  my  work,  as  they  have  laughed  at  all 
reforms  while  struggling  for  life. 

xi 


Xll  TOBACCO. 

f' Biding  out  of  Brattleboro  one  Monday  morn- 
ing with  Rev.  Dr.  Pierpont,  he  asked  me,  'What 
did  you  do  yesterday  ? '  fI  preached  to  Baptist 
Mends  in  the  morning  on  the  text,  "'Whether  ye 
eat  or  drink,  or  whatsoever  ye  do,  do  all  to  the 
glory  of  God,''  and  showed  them  they  could  not 
glorify  him  by  using  tobacco.  I  addressed  three 
Sunday-schools  at  noon,  and  showed  the  boys  that 
tobacco  leads  to  idleness,  poverty,  strong  drink, 
Vice,  ill  health,  insanity  and  death.  I  preached  to 
the  Congregational  ists  in  "West  Brattleboro  in  the 
afternoon  on  the  text,  "That  which  is  highly  es- 
teemed among  men  is  abomination  in  the  sight  of 
God,"  showing  them  that  men  highly  esteemed  to- 
bacco, but  God  abhorred  it.  I  lectured  in  the 
evening  in  the  town  hall  to  a  noble  bod}'  of  young 
men  on  the  destructive  effects  of  tobacco.' 

"The  poet  exclaimed  in  surprise,  'A  piodigious 
worker!'  Then  musing  a  moment,  added,  rI  will 
give  you  your  epitaph.'  In  a  Hudibrastic  sort  of 
verse  which  I  cannot  repeat,  he  said  in  substance : 
1  "We  have  great  men  enough,  philosophers 
enough,  poets  enough,  geniuses  enough,  D.  D.'s 
enough,  L.  L.  D  's  enough.  The  world  needs  work- 
ers.    Here  lies  one.'''     This  is  your  epitaph.' 

I  take  a  few  specimens  from  the  journal  of  Mr. 
Trask's  warfare  on  tobacco,  which  he  says  "are  the 
off-hand  record  of  the  rough  and  tumble  incident 
to  the  early  stages  f  this  reform,  when  to  assault 
tobacco  in  the  shape  of  a  smoker,  chewer,  snuffer 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH.  Xlll 

or  raiser,  was  tantamount  to  assaulting  a  hornet's 
nest,  and  we  were  about  as  likely  to  be  stung  by 
friend  as  foe." 

"October  28,  1852.  —  On  my  way  to  the  city,  I 
have  free  talk  with  Dr.  P.,  who  affirms,  'It  is  an 
insidious  evil ;  it  injures  the  individual  more  than 
the  community ;  to  fight  it  is  like  fighting  the  mi- 
asma/ and  winds  up  by  saying,  'Brother,  I  wouldn't 
fight  it  another  day.  Take  a  parish,  be  quiet  and 
happy  the  rest  of  your  life  ! ' 

"Right  in  front  of  Tremont  Temple,  a  clerical 
brother  takes  me  by  the  button,  and  facetiously 
asks,  'Brother,  have  you  got  all  the  tobacco  out  of 
the  world?'  'Not  all,  brother  ;  to  mend  the  world 
is  a  vast  concern.  Dr.  P.  bids  me  quit  this  re- 
form and  take  a  parish.'  'No,  no  ;  go  on  ;  agitate, 
agitate!  It  is  up-hill  work,  but  in  the  strength  of 
the  Lord,  go  on.' 

"Called  on  Professor .     He  assures  me  I 

shall  do  a  world  of  good  if  I  do  not  carry  matters 
too  far.  'I  chew  a  little,'  he  adds  ;  'if  I  did  not,  I 
should  be  as  fat  as  a  pig.  The  little  I  chew  does 
me  good.  I  detest  smoking;  it  poisons  the  com- 
mon air.' 

"  I  passed  to  the  seminary  to  give  a  lecture  to 
the  students.  The  first  I  met  accosted  me  :  'Mr. 
Trask,  you  are  too  late  to  benefit  me ;  I  gave  up 
tobacco  three  months  ago.'  'You  smoke,  my 
young  brother;  I  smell  it.'  'Yes,  I  must  smoke  a 
little,  but  I  abhor  chewing.9 


XIV  TOBACCO. 

"At  Greenfield,  saw  Rev.  Mr.  Langstrotk,  the 
Corypheus  in  the  science  of  bees.  He  says,  rBees 
are  wiser  than  men  about  tobacco.  One  of  my 
hives  was  insulted,  made  stupid  or  drunk  by  to- 
bacco smoke  ;  but  when  the  persecutor  came  round 
again  with  his  pipe  they  gave  him  to  understand 
that  he  could  not  repeat  the  insult  with  impunity. 
They  assailed  him  on  all  sides  with  a  vengeance.'" 

I  give  selections  from  some  of  Mr.  Trask's  cam- 
paigns : 

"Mr.  J.  C,  of  Connecticut,  in  a  letter,  de- 
nounces me  and  my  mission.  He  bids  me  meet 
him  at  the  judgment  day,  and  answer  for  the  sin 
of  preaching  against  tobacco  on  the  Sabbath.  I 
reply:  'Mr.  J.  C. —  Wlien  you  write  again, pay 
your  postage.     George  TraskJ 

"January  26.  —  Spirits  below  zero.  Letter 
after  letter,  giving  me  not  a  ray  of  light,  not  a 
farthing  of  money,  not  a  word  of  encouragement. 
One  from  a  brother  clergyman  says  :  f  Our  associa- 
tion criticised  you  and  your  mission  in  a  fraternal 
manner,  after  you  left  us  the  other  day.  Many  of 
us  thought  you  ought  to  be  a  little  more  cautious 
and  courteous,  and  thereby  carry  on  your  unpopu- 
lar work  in  a  way  less  offensive  and  with  better 
success.'  f  O  God  ! '  I  cry, f have  mercy  on  an  am- 
ateur ministry!  One-third  of  this  association,  or 
more,  sit  in  their  chairs,  chew,  smoke,  criticise, 
and  imagine  that  a  man  can  handle  pitch  and  not 
defile  his  garments.' 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH.  XV 

"Called  at  a  school  in  Boston  to  drop  a  word 
touching  pernicious  habits.  The  teacher  assures 
me  it  would  not  be  best.  fMy  scholars  are  from 
rich  and  fashionable  families  which  smoke,  and  it 
will  not  do  to  forbid  the  boys  to  do  what  their 
fathers  practise.'  The  Lord  have  mercy  on  gen- 
teel families  and  genteel  schools  in  this  city  of  no- 
tions ! 

"May  13.  — On  my  route  to  Waltham.  Three 
red  cents  in  my  treasury  to  hire  a  hall,  pay  my 
board  and  battle  the  most  popular  of  all  narcotics. 
God  give  me  grit  and  grace.' 

"Cambridge,  July  20.  —  Commencement.  A 
class  of  eighty-eight  were  graduated.  With  rare 
exceptions  the  young  men  were  pale,  lank  and 
lean — the  pitiable  victims  of  smoke.  This  is 
Cambridge  College  in  1853.  How  was  it  in  1650  ? 
'No  scholar  shall  take  tobacco,  unless  permitted 
by  the  president,  with  the  consent  of  their  parents 
or  guardians,  and  on  good  reasons  first  given  by  a 
physician,  and  then  in  a  sober  and  private  man- 
ner.' 

"I  met  an  admirable  woman,  a  clergyman's  wife, 
who  said  :  c  My  husband  preached  an  excellent  ser- 
mon on  self-denial  one  Sabbath,  and  as  he  came 
down  from  the  pulpit  I  said,  "Husband,  that  is  a 
good  sermon.  Now  go  home,  drop  tobacco,  and 
put  it  into  practice."  He  did.'  Luther  says,  'The 
sweetest  thing  in  the  world  is  the  heart  of  a  pious 
woman.'  Brother  Martin,  I  sincerely  believe  it. 


XVI  TOBACCO. 

"A  deacon  in  Hadley  besought  113  not  to  lecture 
against  raising  tobacco,  because  by  raising  it  he 
could  give  more  to  foreign  missions.  The  deacon 
reminds  me  of  a  man  in  Marlboro,  who  said  to  his 
neighbor:  'Sir,  I  wish  to  sell  you  my  conscience. 
It  is  just  as  good  as  brand  new,  for  I  never  used 
it.'  Tobacco  fields  and  distilleries  of  liquid  death 
belong  to  the  same  category.  When,  oh  when, 
will  Christian  pulpits  in  that  fat  valley  do  their 
duty? 

"A  school-master  caught  his  boys  smoking. 
'How,  now! 'he  shouted  to  the  first  lad;  'how 
dare  you  be  smoking  tobacco?' 

"'Sir,  I  am  subject  to  headaches,  and  smoke 
takes  off  the  pains.'  'And  you?  And  you?  And 
you?' 

"  One  had  a  raging  tooth ;  another  colic ;  the 
third  a  cough. 

'  'Now,  sirrah  ! '  shouted  the  master  to  the  last 
boy,  'what  disorder  do  you  smoke  for?' 

"Looking  up  in  the  master's  face,  he  said  in  a 
whining  tone,  'Sir,  I  smoke  for  corns.'  " 

Then  follows  a  characteristic  report  : 

"Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  A  few  friends  have 
urged  me  to  call  you  together  to  listen  to  a  state- 
ment of  the  doings  of  the  American  Anti-Tobacco 
Society  for  the  ten  years  of  its  existence,  and  to 
give  you  an  opportunity  to  adopt  measures  to  ar- 
rest an  evil  of  great  magnitude. 

"This  society  is  not  rich  in  names;  still  we  are 


HISTORICAL  SKETCH.  XV11 

happy  to  present  a  Board  of  Officers  so  united  in 
purpose,  so  efficient  in  action,  so  reliable,  and  so 
well  looking,  considering  the  f  wear  and  tear '  of  this 
decade  of  hard  service.  The  president  of  this  soci- 
ety is  George  Trask ;  the  vice-president,  secretary, 
treasurer  and  auditor  is  George  Trask.  The  honor- 
ary body,  corporate  and  incorporate,  is  the  same 
unwearied  individual — the  Anti-Tobacco  Apostle. 

"The  object  of  this  society  is  to  break  up  a 
death-like,  prevalent  stupidity  in  relation  to  the 
evils  of  tobacco,  and  by  '  light  and  love'  create  a 
public  conscience,  which  we  trust  in  God  will  lead 
to  the  removal  of  so  great  a  curse.  This  society 
encounters  many  obstacles.  Among  these  is  the 
incorrigibility  of  the  habit  it  assails.  A  man  can 
give  up  his  pastimes,  his  bottle,  his  pastor,  and 
his  politics  with  less  ado  than  his  quid  or  his  pipe. 
If  any  devotee  of  the  weed  disputes  this,  let  him 
try  it.  This  cause  encounters  scorn  and  derision. 
It  has  been  laughed  at  in  the  church  and  out  of  it 
from  Maine  to  Georgia,  from  Plymouth  Rock  to 
California.  We  have  needed  temples  of  brass,  we 
have  needed  faith  in  God  like  Abraham's  to  brave 
this  tide  of  sarcasm.     Thank  God,  we  have  had  it ! 

"  The  position  of  many  women  is  unfavorable  to 
this  cause.  They  think  it  in  bad  taste  to  rebuke 
husbands  and  sons  for  indulgence  in  this  fashion- 
able pleasure.  But  they  do  not  think  it  in  bad 
taste  to  live  day  and  night  in  apartments  fumigat- 
ed with  this  impurity  ;  they  are  used  to  it.     They 


XV111  TOBACCO. 

are  like  the  Irish  girl,  who  was  advised  not  to 
marry  a  drunkard.  She  replied:  'I will;  I  am 
used  to  it;  it  will  seem  more  like  home.' 

"AVe  have  during  ten  years  delivered  more  than 
two  thousand  sermons  and  lectures,  adapted  to 
show  the  pernicious  effects  of  the  poison  on  the 
bodies  and  souls  of  men.  AVe  have  published  a 
number  of  small  books  and  thirty  tracts  on  the 
subject.  These  tracts  have  never  been  modified 
or  mollified  by  any  committee  ;  hence  they  are  not 
perfect ;  they  retain  all  the  original  depravity 
they  had  at  the  hands  of  their  authors  ;  I  mean  the 
respectable  board  of  gentlemen  we  have  named 
who  constitute  the  officers  of  this  society." 

Thus  all  along  the  years,  this  unwearied  reform- 
er preached  and  prayed  and  wrote  tracts  and  small 
books  which  he  sowed  broadcast.  But  in  the  great 
Boston  fire  a  sore  calamity  befell  him  in  the  de- 
struction of  all  his  plates.  I  remember  seeing  a 
letter  he  wrote  on  this  occasion,  in  which  he 
speaks  of  himself  as  lying  flat  on  his  back,  yet 
looking  up  into  the  sky.  And  with  a  heavenly 
inspired  courage  he  instantly  went  to  work  and 
had  the  plates  re-cast. 

That  he  was  never  unwise  in  his  methods,  he 
was  the  last  man  to  claim.  Fighting  single-handed 
as  he  did  against  a  public  idol  enthroned  in  the 
highest  places,  it  would  have  been  a  miracle  had 
he  escaped  criticism.     But  with  the  most  imper- 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH.  XIX 

turbable   good   nature,   he    skillfully  parried   the 
many  hard  blows  he  received. 

After  a  quarter  of  a  century's  incessant  toil,  his 
health  gave  way  and  for  months  he  was  a  sick 
man.  Yet  his  busy  hands  never  ceased  their 
work,  his  last  tract  being  an  Appeal  to  the  Rev. 
Charles  Spurgeon,  of  which  I  give  the  closing 
characteristic  sentence  :  "The  project  of  converting 
the  world  by  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  by  the  power  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  and  by  man's  free  agency  is  not  a 
humbug,  but  a  natural,  scriptural,  glorious,  project 
eclipsing  every  other.  The  idea  of  converting  the 
world  whilst  rum,  opium,  and  tobacco  are  its 
masters,  is  a  humbug." 

It  was  while  correcting  the  proofs  of  this  tract 
that  the  Master  summoned  him.  So  on  January 
25,  1875,  the  old  hero  joyfully  passed  from  the 
toils  of  earth  to  the  higher,  broader  services  of  the 
heavenly  kingdom. 

Blessed  be  the  memory  of  George  Trask,  one  of 
the  earliest  workers  in  this  great  field  —  The  One- 
Man  Anti-Tobacco  Society  !  . 


But  the  good  work  was  not  to  end  with  George 
Trask's  mortal  life. 

At  Cincinnati  in  November  of  the  same  year, 
1875,  at  the  Second  Annual  Convention  of  the 
Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union, — that 
wonderful  society,  born  of  the  Crusades  and  which 


XX  TOBACCO. 

has  grown  with  such  marvellous  rapidity, — ar- 
rangements were  made  for  giving  thorough  in- 
struction concerning  alcohol  and  tobacco  to  the 
members  of  the  Juvenile  Union. 

At  the  Fourth  Convention  in  Chicago,  1877,  a 
strong  resolution  was  taken  to  oppose  the  use  of 
tobacco  in  every  form. 

At  the  Tenth  Convention  in  Detroit,  1883,  Mrs. 
M.  B.  Reese,  of  Ohio,  was  appointed  superintend- 
ent of  a  department  of ff  Effort  to  Overthrow  the 
Tobacco  Habit."     * 

At   the   Twelfth    Convention    in   Philadelphia, 

1885,  this  department  was  changed  to  a  "Depart- 
ment of  Narcotics,"  of  which  Mrs.  Havens,  of  Den- 
ver, Colorado,  was  made  superintendent. 

At  the  Thirteenth  Convention  in  Minneapolis, 

1886,  Mrs.  E.  B.  Ingalls,  of  St.  Louis,  was  ap- 
pointed national  superintendent  of  this  department, 
the  different  state  superintendents  securing  super- 
intendents in  district  or  local  Unions.  There  is 
thus  a  chain  of  workers  from  the  National  to  the 
smallest  Union  in  every  state. 

Under  the  influence  of  this  department,  anti- 
tobacco  literature  has  been  widely  circulated,  and 
instruction  has  been  given  in  our  schools,  while 
the  District  of  Columbia  and  thirty-five  states 
have  passed  laws  of  greater  or  less  stringency,  for- 
bidding the  sale  of  tobacco  to  minors  of  various 
ages.  It  is  hoped  eventually  to  have  the  full  period 
of  minority  secured  against  the  evil. 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH.  XXI 

There  are  several  societies  now  enlisted  in  this 
important  reform. 

THE    BRITISH   ANTI-TOBACCO   SOCIETY. 

This  society  was  founded  in  London,  1853,  by 
Thomas  Reynolds,  who,  like  George  Trask,  was  for 
some  years  a  great  smoker,  and  who,  like  him, 
when  converted,  freely  devoted  his  time  and  sub- 
stance to  the  cause.  And  he  did  this  so  to  the 
neglect  of  his  own  personal  interests  that  some 
friend  proposed  as  his  fitting  epitaph,  "Here  lies  a 
man  who  in  his  great  regard  for  things  spiritual 
well-nigh  forgot  things  temporal." 

The  organ  Ox  the  society  is  the  "  Anti-Tobacco 
Journal,"  now  edited  by  Mr.  Reynolds'  daughter, 
who,  at  her  father's  death,  bravely  took  up  his 
work  and  is  still  faithfully  carrying  it  on. 

THE    ENGLISH    ANTI-TOBACCO    SOCIETY    AND    ANTI- 
NARCOTIC    LEAGUE. 

In  November,  1867,  at  a  conference  convened  in 
Manchester,  an  organization  was  formed,  designated 
as  the  Manchester  and  Salford  Anti-Tobacco  Soci- 
ety, a  title  subsequently  enlarged  to  its  present 
form.  The  very  Rev.  F.  Close,  D.D.,  Dean  of 
Carlisle ,  was  the  first  president.  This  society  seems 
to  have  been  very  much  alive,  if  I  may  use  the  ex- 
pression, many  eminent  men  having  been  connected 
with  it  as  working  officers.  Alfred  E.  Eccles, 
Esq.,  of  Chorley,  with  the  late  Peter  Spence  and 
his  son,  Frank  Spence,  have  given  liberally  of  their 


XX11  TOBACCO. 

time  and  money  to  the  cause.  Mr.  Eecles,  who  is 
now  president,  has  made  a  free  distribution  of 
many  millions  of  tracts  and  booklets,  at  an  expense 
of  hundreds  of  pounds.  The  organ  of  the  society 
is  "  The  Committee's  Monthly  Letter  to  Members 
and  Friends."  It  is  pleasant  to  report  that  a  num- 
ber of  branches  have  been  formed  in  different  parts 
of  the  kingdom. 

In  "The  Band  of  Hope  Chronicle,"  issued  month- 
ly by  The  United  Kingdom  Band  of  Hope  Union, 
are  frequently  published  articles,  and  sometimes 
a  series  of  articles,  upon  tobacco. 

A  local  anti-tobacco  society  has  been  established 
at  Heading,  about  an  hour's  drive  from  London. 
And  this  year  an  attempt  is  being  made  to  establish 
in  London  a  national  anti-tobacco  society,  with 
Dr.  Drysdale  as  its  president. 

SOCIETE    OONTRE    L'ABUS    DU    TAB  AC. 

In  Paris,  in  1867,  M.  Decroix,  with  the  assist- 
ance of  Messieurs  Bourrel  and  Blatin,  formed  an 
association  against  the  abuse  of  tobacco.  On  in- 
quiring of  M.  Decroix  why  it  was  not  named  the 
association  against  tobacco,  he  replied  that  the 
government,  which  has  the  monopoly  of  the  tobacco 
revenues,  would  not  authorize  this,  and  that  the 
temperance  society  was  restricted  in  the  same  way, 
—  The  Society  against  the  Abuse  of  Alcoholics. 

After  a  time,  the  addition  of  new  members  greatly 
changed  this  organization,  and  having  labored  in 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH.  XX111 

vain  to  bring  it  back  to  its  original  character,  M. 
Decroix,  in  1877,  founded  the  present  society.  In 
1883,  the  first  association  was  dissolved,  and  the 
commission  of  liquidation  passed  over  to  the  new 
society  three  hundred  and  sixty  francs  to  be 
awarded  in  prizes,  while  M.  Blatin  left  a  legacy 
to  found  an  annual  prize  of  fifty  francs,  bearing 
his  name. 

It  was  with  this  society  that  the  International 
Congress  on  the  subject  of  tobacco  was  held  during 
the  great  Paris  Exposition  of  1889. 

The  members  have  shown  much  energy  in  pub- 
lishing and  distributing  valuable  anti-tobacco  liter- 
ature. M.  Decroix,  the  founder  and  president,  has 
written  a  number  of  excellent  pamphlets,  among 
which  is  one  of  special  importance  on  ff  The  use  of 
Tobacco  in  the  Army."  In  this  connection  I  can- 
not forbear  naming  a  French  work  of  over  five 
hundred  pages,  by  Dr.  H.  A.  Depierris,  entitled 
"  Physiologie  Sociale  Les  Tabac."  The  treatment 
of  the  subject  is  candid  and  exhaustive,  and  the 
book  is  interesting  as  well  as  instructive  from  the 
beginning  to  the  end. 

THE   INTERNATIONAL   HEALTH   AND    TEMPERANCE 
ASSOCIATION. 

This  society  was  formed  in  1879,  by  Dr.  J.  H. 
Kellogg,  of  the  Medical  and  Surgical  Sanitarium, 
Battle  Creek,  Michigan.  It  has  an  anti-tobacco 
pledge,  to  which  there  have  been  nearly  twenty 


XXIV  TOBACCO. 

thousand  subscribers.  Dr.  Kellogg  has  written 
a  number  of  tracts  concerning  the  tobacco  habit, 
of  which  several  hundred  thousands  have  been  sold. 

THE    ANTI-TOBACCO    ASSOCIATION   OF    ST.  JOHN,  NEW 
BRUNSWICK. 

Several  years  later,  on  December  6,  1887,  largely 
through  the  influence  of  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  workers, 
Mr.  R.  A.  H.  Morrow,  with  several  others,  formed 
this  society.  Among  the  good  results  has  been  the 
publication  of  a  book  containing  "Three  Prize 
Essays  on  Tobacco/'  the  giving  up  the  sale  by 
some  of  the  traders,  and  the  passage  of  a  law  pro- 
hibiting its  sale  in  any  fonn  to  persons  under 
eighteen. 

Kev.  A.  S.  Sims  has  labored  for  some  years  in 
this  cause  in  Canada,  but  I  have  been  unable  to 
get  particulars  of  his  work.  And  there  are  others 
enlisted  more  or  less  prominently  in  the  tobacco 
warfare,  of  whom  my  limits  preclude  mention. 
They  are  all  helping  to  secure  the  final  victory. 

AN    ANTI-TOBACCO    CLUB    IN    TURKEY. 

A  cheering  token  of  progress  comes  through 
Mrs.  Montgomery,  missionary  of  "The  Woman's 
Board"  in  Adana,  Turkey,  some  extracts  from 
whose  letter  I  may  be  pardoned  for  giving : 

"On  my  return  to  the  Cilician  Plain  in  1887,  I 
carried  with  me  a  copy  of 'The  Tobacco  Problem' 
which  I  afterwards  put  into  the  hands  of  Mr. 
Hagop  Yeranian,  at  that  time  the  Armenian  Pro- 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH.  XXV 

testant  preacher  at  Tarsus,  knowing  him  to  be 
greatly  interested  in  such  matters.  He  was  so 
impressed  by  the  book  that  he  immediately  set 
about  organizing  an  anti-tobacco  club  in  the  city 
of  Paul's  birth.  In  the  spring  of  1889,  he  in- 
formed me  that  he  had  secured  twenty  members, 
who  were  quite  enthusiastic  over  the  pledges  they 
had  made.  I  remember  that  they  were  of  three 
different  nationalities,  Armenian,  Greek,  and  Turk- 
ish. Two  years  later  this  preacher  left  Tarsus, 
and  is  now  working  in  the  Smyrna  field.  I  have 
no  doubt  that  he  will  start  another  club  in  the 
country  of  Paul's  early  labors." 

THE    ANTI-NARCOTIC   SOCIETY   OF   THE    PACIFIC 
COAST. 

Dr.  C.  Clifford  Vanderbeck,  who  is  at  the  head 
of  a  sanitarium  in  San  Francisco,  called  "The 
Hygeia,"  has  long  been  deeply  impressed  with  the 
terrible  evils  of  the  opium  habit,  which  he  says 
"has  saturated  our  society  here  through  and 
through."  After  many  efforts  by  lectures  and  in 
other  ways  to  interest  the  public,  on  December 
1,  1891,  he  founded  "The  Anti-Narcotic  Society 
of  the  Pacific  Coast."  Dr.  Vanderbeck  writes : 
"  Some  of  the  poor  victims  who  are  brought  before 
the  police  judges,  beg  to  be  sent  to  the  county  jail 
or  the  House  of  Correction,  where  they  cannot 
get  their  accustomed  narcotic.  Hitherto,  with  all 
our  charities,  nothing  has  been  done  for  one  of  the 


XXVI  TOBACCO. 

most  flagrant  vices  on  this  coast.  But  we  hope, 
in  the  near  future,  to  have  an  institution  for  the 
treatment  and  cure  of  the  victims  of  the  opium 
habit." 

Some  one  has  expressed  the  doubt  whether  the 
introduction  of  hypodermic  injections,  with  their 
frequent  and  fearful  results,  is  not,  on  the  whole, 
proving  a  curse  to  mankind.  But  may  not  the 
difficulty  lie  in  their  frequent  inconsiderate  pre- 
scription and  their  sometimes  reckless  application  ? 
This  is  a  matter  of  such  grave  importance  that  I 
cannot  forbear  summoning  witnesses  from  the 
medical  faculty. 

Dr.  Vanderbeck,  in  a  treatise  on  "Narcotic  In- 
ebriety," frankly  admits,  "  We  cannot  get  away 
from  the  fact  that  we  are  sometimes  a  little  careless 
in  our  use  of  narcotics."  He  quotes  Dr.  Charles 
C.  Cranmer,  of  Saratoga,  X.Y.  :  "I  am  grieved  to 
find  that  physicians  possessing  a  supposed  liberal 
education,  and  knowing  fully  the  terrible  effects  of 
the  continued  use  of  opium  and  morphia,  prescribe 
the  same  in  the  most  reckless  manner.  I  use  the 
word  reckless  because  I  am  bound  to  believe,  from 
actual  facts  before  me,  that  the  above  drugs  are 
constantly  prescribed  for  every  simple  ache  or  pain 
coming  under  their  professional  care." 

Dr.  Vanderbeck  continues  :  "Dr.  Cranmer  affirms 
that,  within  a  radius  of  half  a  mile  of  his  office,  he 
knows  of  a  dozen  friends  with  the  opium  habit, 
and  in  the  majority  of  them  it  came  about  from  the 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH.  XXVI 1 

physician's  prescribing  an  opiate  for  a  simple  pain. 
He  asks  the  profession  to  raise  their  voice  against 
this  terrible  crime.  On  the  other  side  of  the  water, 
we  find  the  note  of  warning  has  been  sounded  as 
well.  Dr.  Minnet,  of  Edinburgh,  reports  cases  of 
opium  eating,  all  starting  from  physicians'  prescrip- 
tions. ...  In  using  opium,  the  profession  should 
always  bear  in  mind  that  we  might  be  the  agent  of 
setting  the  spark  to  the  fire  that  may  only  be  ex- 
tinguished with  life.  ...  In  cases  of  insomnia 
and  of  neuralgia  we  have  a  number  of  new  and 
safe  remedies  that  ought  to  lessen  materially  the 
prescribing  of  the  direct  narcotics." 

In  view  of  these  facts,  is  it  not  in  order  to  ex- 
press the  very  earnest  desire  that  physicians  be 
most  scrupulously  considerate  and  cautious  in  mak- 
ing such  prescriptions  ? 

It  has  been  suggested  that  a  law  should  be 
enacted  forbidding  the  sale  of  the  instrument  and 
the  drug  to  any  outside  the  medical  profession, 
and  that  physicians  should  never  commit  them  into 
the  hands  of  patients  or  of  any  irresponsible  per- 
son, but  restrict  their  use  to  themselves  or  to  an 
instructed  nurse.  Some  means  of  limiting  and 
controlling  this  practice  is  of  vital  importance. 

The  Right  Rev.  Bishop  of  Little  Rock  has  re- 
cently called  the  attention  of  the  Catholic  Total 
Abstinence  Union  to  this  subject.  He  says  :  "  What 
priest  in  charge  of  souls  does  not  know  that  it  is 
the  well-nigh  universal  practice  among  physicians 


xxviii  TOBACCO. 

of  the  day  to  administer  intoxicants,  morphine, 
opium,  etc.,  to  their  dying  patients  to  alleviate 
their  pains  and  then  send  them  intoxicated  (or 
stupefied)  before  their  Judge,  and  even  without 
the  opportunity  of  arranging  their  will  or  family 
affairs. " 

mrs.  hunt's  educational  wtork. 

There  is  no  more  grievous  bondage  than  that  in 
which  the  narcotic  despot  holds  his  victims,  and 
his  dominion  extends  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the 
earth.  There  was  a  time  when  the  warfare  against 
him  seemed  utterly  hopeless ;  but  God  be  thanked 
that  the  brave  hearts  and  unwearied  hands  which 
have  undertaken  this  battle  have  not  fought  in 
vain.  We  have  seen  one  organized  army  after 
another  rising  against  him,  and,  though  the  con- 
flict has  been  desperate,  some  trophies  have  been 
won. 

Of  the  wonderful  work  accomplished  by  Mary 
H.  Hunt,  it  would  take  pages  to  speak  adequately. 
Interested  in  the  subject  of  temperance  as  a  mother, 
as  early  as  1872,  she  commenced  a  thorough  inves- 
tigation which,  on  the  formation  of  the  W.  C.  T.  U., 
led  to  her  accepting  the  superintendency  of  the 
Department  of  Scientific  Temperance  Instruction, 
both  national  and  international.  The  thrilling 
story  of  her  labors,  her  battles,  and  her  victories 
is  too  long  to  be  told  here,  but  can  be  found  in 
the  ff  Brief  History  of  the  First  Decade  of  Scien- 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH.  XXIX 

tific  Temperance  Instruction  in  Schools  and  Col- 
leges." * 

I  have  only  room  to  say  that,  as  the  result  of 
her  indomitable  efforts  with  our  legislators,  in 
thirty-six  of  our  states,  all  the  territories,  our 
military  and  naval  academies,  and  the  Indian  and 
colored  schools  under  federal  government,  educa- 
tion as  to  the  evil  effects  of  alcoholic  drinks  and 
other  narcotics  is  now  required ;  thus  bringing 
more  than  twelve  million  children  under  temper- 
ance education  laws.  And  in  twenty  different 
countries  interest  has  been  awakened  in  the  work 
of  this  education  of  the  young.  Who  can  predict 
the  result  when  the  children  of  every  land  are 
thoroughly  instructed  in  the  evils  and  the  perils  of 
the  drinking  and  narcotic  habit,  and  when  anti- 
alcoholic  and  anti-narcotic  societies  girdle  the 
whole  earth? 

THE    ANTI-VENENEAN    SOCIETY. 

Although  this  society,  in  its  birth,  preceded 
by  many  years  that  of  George  Trask,  yet  as  it  re- 
lated more  prominently  to  the  drinking  than  to  the 
tobacco  habit,  and  was  moreover  limited  to  Am- 
herst College,  the  mention  of  it  comes  later.  It 
was  formed  in  1830,  by  President  Hitchcock,  a  pro- 
nounced temperance  man,  for  the  purpose  of  pledg- 
ing its  members  during  their  college  course  against 

♦Obtained  by  addressing  Mrs.  Mary  H.  Hunt,  Hyde  Park,  Mass. 


XXX  TOBACCO. 

the  use  of  alcoholic  drinks  and  of  tobacco,  in  case 
they  were  willing  to  forswear  that  also. 

It  was  the  president's  custom  to  invite  the  fresh- 
men, on  entering  college,  to  his  house,  when,  after 
a  talk  on  the  subject,  he  would  unfold  his  roll  and 
give  them  an  opportunity  to  add  their  signatures. 
After  a  long  period  the  society  was  given  up  to 
the  entire  control  of  the  students,  and  a  few  years 
since  "it  died  of  inanition."' 

"At  the  present  time/'  writes  Professor  Hitch- 
cock, "more  than  twenty  per  cent,  of  our  students 
enter  college  with  the  tobacco  habit.  And  the 
only  power  I  have  against  it  is  that  men  in  athletic 
training  cannot  use  it." 

But  the  Anti-Venenean,  otherwise  Anti-Poison- 
ing Society,  deserves  warm  mention  as  being  one  of 
the  earliest  protests  against  nicotine,  and  also  for 
what  it  accomplished  through  its  honored  founder. 

I  cannot  resist  the  temptation  to  quote  here  a  few 
passages  from  President  Hitchcock's  "History  of  a 
Zoological  Convention  held  in  Central  Africa  in 
1847  :  " 

"After  protracted  discussions,  as  the  sessions  of 
the  convention  were  drawing  to  a  close,  a  committee 
appointed  early  in  the  deliberations  came  forward 
and  through  their  chairman,  the  Asiatic  Leopard, 
reported  the  following  resolutions."  Of  these  res- 
olutions I  can  give  only  one  : 

"  6.  Jtesolved,  that  we  now  pledge  ourselves,  by 
touching  noses,  that  we  will  entirely  abstain  from 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH.  XXXI 

all  beverages  but  water ;  that  we  nauseate  the  poi- 
sonous weed  called  tobacco  ;  that  we  will  discoun- 
tenance their  use  by  other  animals,  and  that  we  will 
do  all  in  our  power  to  increase  their  use  among 
men  as  the  surest  means  of  their  ruin,  and  the  only 
hope  of  preventing  them  from  gaining  the  entire 
control  of  the  whole  animal  kingdom." 

REPORT    FROM    WEST    POINT. 

The  history  of  tobacco,  as  connected  with  our 
National  Military  Academy,  is  of  special  interest. 
From  the  account  kindly  sent  me  September  16, 
1892,  by  Col.  Charles  W.  Larned,  a  professor  in 
the  Academy,  the  following  outline  is  given  :  — 

In  the  early  days  of  West  Point  the  use  of  to- 
bacco was  prohibited,  but  as,  notwithstanding  this, 
smoking  was  prevalent,  the  superintendent  re- 
solved to  try  the  permissive  course.  In  1857, 
therefore,  tobacco  was  given  free  entrance  and  was 
included  among  the  stores  issued  by  the  commis- 
sary. The  only  restriction  laid  upon  the  cadets 
was  the  forbidding  of  smoking  outside  the  limits 
of  their  rooms  and  during  "call  to  quarters"  or 
study  hours.  This  regulation,  however,  had  little 
influence. 

"In  my  own  day,"  writes  Col.  Larned,  "which 
was  from  1866  to  1879,  the  great  majority  were 
smokers,  a  number  of  my  class  smoking  from  re- 
veille to  tattoo,  and  not  a  few  lighting  their  pipes 
after  taps.     At  our  social  meetings  during  release 


XXX11  TOBACCO. 

quarters,  the  air  was  dense  with  smoke  to  a  degree 
I  have  never  seen  equalled,  not  even  in  a  smoking 
car.  ...  I  believe  this  habit  to  have  been  distinctly 
injurious  to  very  many,  and  of  three  whose  post- 
graduate careers  were  wrecked  by  personal  habits, 
all  smoked  to  inordinate  excess. 

"In  1881,  the  authorities  prohibited  smoking 
absolutely.  In  the  discussions  preceding  the  rec- 
ommendation of  this  course  by  the  Academic 
Boord  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  then  Lincoln,  it 
was  urged  that  the  effect  of  toleration  is  to  en- 
courage the  habit ;  that  the  effects  of  smoking 
were  in  most  cases  distinctly  detrimental  to  study, 
and  in  many  instances  to  health,  and  that  many 
who  came  to  the  Academy  without  having  ac- 
quired the  habit  were  induced  to  form  it.  It  was 
argued  also  that,  unlike  civil  institutions,  the  Gov- 
ernment assumes  in  the  disciplinary  code  of  the 
Military  Academy  direct  charge  of,  and  responsi- 
bility for,  the  physical  and  moral  welfare  of  its 
students,  and  that  it  is  bound  in  consequence  not 
to  sanction  or  tolerate  any  practice  which  is  in  any 
degree  subversive  of  either. 

"It  has  been  urged  by  some  that  the  effect  of 
prohibition  is  to  induce  surreptitious  violation  of 
regulations.  This  objection  is  valid  against  every 
prohibitory  regulation  whatever,  and  applies  with 
equal  force  to  hazing. 

"A  close  questioning  of  recent  graduates  and  of 
cadets   themselves    substantiates   the    assumption 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH.  XXXill 

that  at  present  about  half  of  the  cadets  smoke 
more  or  less,  but  that  very  few  smoke  to  excess. 
My  personal  opinion  is  that  on  the  whole  the 
effect  of  prohibition  is  decidedly  beneficial,  and 
that,  under  the  wise  system  of  cumulative  punish- 
ment adopted  by  the  present  superintendent,  the 
habit  is  on  the  decline.  An  examination  of  the 
roster  of  officers  now  stationed  at  the  Academy, 
from  the  superintendent,  Col.  John  M.  Wilson, 
who  is  a  total  abstainer  as  regards  both  liquor  and 
tobacco,  down  to  the  junior  lieutenant,  shows  that, 
out  of  a  total  of  sixty-one,  some  twenty-six  or  seven 
either  do  not  use  tobacco,  or  to  so  slight  a  degree 
as  to  place  them  virtually  on  the  list  of  abstainers. 
Twenty-two  do  not  use  tobacco  in  any  form,  and 
the  majority  of  these  graduated  after  the  introduc- 
tion of  prohibition.  It  may  be  observed  in  this 
connection  that  the  steadiness,  sobriety,  and  studi- 
ousness  of  the  Corps  of  Cadets  has  steadily  in- 
creased of  late  years  in  a  very  marked  degree. 
To  what  extent  diminished  smoking  has  contrib- 
uted to  this  condition  must  be  left  to  conjecture. 
It  is  fair,  however,  to  cite  these  various  facts  as 
strongly  favoring  influences." 

Equally  encouraging  is  a  letter  from  Capt.  R. 
S.  Pythian,  superintendent  United  States  Naval 
Academy,  Annapolis,  Md.  : 

"Sept.  21st,  1892. 

"  I  beg  to  state  that  Naval  Cadets  are  forbidden 
to  use  or  to  have  in  their  possession  tobacco  in 


XXXIV  TOBACCO. 

any  form.  The  regulation  against  the  use  of  to- 
bacco is  enforced  as  rigidly  as  possible,  and  its  vi- 
olation is  severely  punished.  While  it  must  be 
admitted  that  the  practice  cannot  be  altogether 
broken  up,  even  in  an  institution  where  the  stu- 
dents are  under  such  close  observation,  still  the 
strict  enforcement  of  the  regulation  produces  good 
results  by  restricting  the  evil  so  far  as  it  is  possi- 
ble to  do  so." 

In  this  connection  I  quote  from  a  letter  dated 
September  28,  1892,  from  Dr.  Albert  L.  Gihon, 
recently  in  charge  of  the  Naval  Hospital  at  Brook- 
lyn: 

"  The  views  that  I  held,  and  which  you  did  me 
the  honor  to  quote  in  r  The  Tobacco  Problem,'  as 
to  the  prejudicial  influence  of  tobacco  upon  the 
growth  and  development  of  adolescents,  the  result 
of  rive  years  of  close  observations  of  cadets  at  the 
United  States  Naval  Academy  at  Annapolis,  Mary- 
land, during  the  period  of  my  duty  in  charge  of 
the  Medical  Department  of  that  institution  (1875- 
1880),  I  still  hold  in  undiminished  degree. 

"  I  am  more  than  ever  convinced  that  the  use  of 
tobacco  by  adolescents  should  be  vigorously  inter- 
dicted in  every  educational  or  other  establishment 
in  which  the  young  are  under  disciplinary  control, 
and  I  further  believe  that  the  sale  of  cigarettes,  or 
other  forms  of  tobacco,  to  minors,  should  be  prohib- 
ited by  legislation." 


PEEFATOEY. 


I  have  carefully  examined  the  work  on  Tobacco, 
as  prepared  by  Mrs.  Lawrence,  and  find  in  it  a 
thorough  and  kindly  consideration  of  the  subject 
in  all  its  relations,  without  prejudice,  and  with 
every  desirable  concession. 

The  book  cannot  fail  to  impress  its  truth  upon 
the  public  mind.  Its  mission  is  in  the  family,  the 
shop,  the  college,  the  pulpit,  —  in  short,  in  all 
places  of  education  and  of  training  for  business, 
and  in  all  classes  of  the  community. 

WILLARD  PARKER,  M.  D. 
New  York,  May,  1882. 


CONTENTS. 


Introduction 1 

FINANCIAL  VIEW. 

Quantity  and  Cost  — Cost  from  Fires  — Laws  limitingUse  — Culture- 
Other  Tobacco-Costs— Yorktown  Bill— Tobacco  Census    ....      4 

PHYSICAL  AND  INTELLECTUAL  VIEW. 

Nicotine-Poisoning  —  Experiments  —  Facts  —  Considered  Medically  — 
Effects  on  Children  and  Young  Men— Lowering  Scholarship  — 
Hard  Breaking  in —Cigarettes  — Tobacco  and  Drinking  —  Man- 
ufacture of  Chewing  Tobacco— Cigar-Making  — Properties  and 
Effects  of  Tobacco  —  Experiences  of  Literary  Men  — Medical 
Inconsistencies  — The  late  Dr.  Willard  Parker's  Views  —  Tobacco 
Illustrations  —  Tobacco  Diseases  —  Tobacco  Amaurosis  —  Color- 
Blindness  —  Delirium  Tremens  —  Heart  Disease  —  Smoker's  Can- 
cer —  Impaired  Muscular  Force  —  Shattered  Nerves  —  Insanity. 
Tobacco  Heredity  — Surgeon-General's  Report 23 


TOBACCO  BENEFITS. 

Destroying  Vermin  —  Excluding  Ladies  —  Mellowing  Theology  —  In- 
ducing Self- Abasement  —  Subduing  Bad  Smells  —  Protecting 
against  Malaria  and  Typhoid  — Aiding  Digestion  — Quieting  the 
Nerves  — An  Antiseptic  — Preserving  the  Teeth  — Helpful  Stim- 
ulant—Checking Waste  of  Tissue  — Benefiting  Adults  — Pro- 
moting Sociability 


SOCIAL  AND  AESTHETIC  VIEW. 

Old-Time  View  of  Tobacco  —List  of  Brands  —What  Protection  Against 
Smokers— Twenty  Minutes  in  a  Smoking-Car— Present  Outlook- 
Civil  Rights  vs.  Tobacco  —  Tobacco  Pictures  —  Tobacco  Manu- 
facture —  Cigarette-Making  —Wives  of  Tobacco-users  —  Female 
Devotees  —  Demands  of  Modern  Travel  —  Tobacco  Barbarism  — 

Tobacco  vs.  Woman 119 

xxxvii 


XXXV111  CONTENTS. 


MORAL  AND  SPIRITUAL  VIEW. 

Deteriorating  Influence  —  Clerical  Tobacco  —  Missionary  Tobacco  — 
Temperance  and  Tobacco  —  Tobacco  Bondage  —  The  Yoke 
Broken  —  Cheering  Tokens  —  Heathen  Examples  —  Claims  of 
the  Trade  —  Helpful  Suggestions 181 


TOBACCO  INDICTED  AND  TRIED. 

Indictment  —  Objectors  Summoned  —  Plea  with  Woman  —  Tobacco 

Battles  —  Final  Appeal 239 


APPENDIX 257 


TOBACCO 


INTRODUCTION. 

Whatever  benefits  may  be  legitimately  claimed 
for  tobacco,  very  few  will  deny  that  the  prevailing 
habit  of  using  it  is  expensive,  unwholesome,  and 
uncleanly,  if  not  actually  demoralizing  and  peril- 
ous. Why,  then,  must  it  be  touched  so  gingerly? 
Why  must  we  approach  it  with  deprecating  bows 
and  apologies,  as  if,  after  all,  it  was  not  much  of 
an  offence  ? 

Alas  !  it  is  because  this  ugly  brown  idol  is  set 
up  in  high  places ;  because  it  has  more  worship- 
pers than  any  heathen  god  ;  because  it  is  enshrined 
in  many  a  heart  as  the  dearest  thing  on  earth.  If, 
now  and  then,  some  fearless  hand  attacks  it,  not  a 
few,  even  among  those  who  are  not  its  votaries,  in 
their  concern  lest  some  good  man  may  chance  to 
get  hit,  stand  ready  to  warn  off  the  assailant.  One 
is  thus  often  reminded  of  the  old  slavery  days, 
when  many  who  were  not  practical  partakers  con- 
doned the  offence  of  such  as  were. 

Are  not  those  who  use  this  narcotic  in  its  vari- 
l 


2  TOBACCO. 

ous  forms  as  truly  slaves  as  were  our  Southern 
negroes?  Is  not  its  bondage  as  oppressive  as  was 
theirs  ?     Are  not  its  fetters  as  tightly  riveted  ? 

This  tobacco-habit  extends  to  every  nation  on 
the  globe,  and  permeates  every  rank  in  society. 
The  gray-haired  patriarch  is  not  too  old  nor  the 
boy  of  twelve  too  young  to  be  its  willing  subject. 
The  filthiest  slum  and  the  politest  society  are  alike 
pervaded  by  it. 

It  stalks  defiantly  through  the  streets,  fouling 
the  very  air  of  heaven.  It  boldly  sits  in  our  legis- 
lative halls,  both  state  and  national.  In  spite  of 
special  arrangements  to  imprison  it,  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  shutting  it  away  from  the  tell-tale 
air  and  the  whispering  breeze. 

Its  insidious  spell  has  so  fallen  on  the  community 
that  multitudes  seem  utterly  insensible  to  its  char- 
acter and  its  consequences.  Indeed,  so  potent  is 
this  spell  that  there  is  now  and  then  a  woman  who, 
instead  of  being:  disturbed  bv  seeing  her  father  or 
brother,  husband  or  lover,  among  the  victims,  will 
complacently  smile  upon  his  offence  and  gayly 
decorate  the  symbols  of  his  slavery. 

Shall  I  be  pronounced  a  fanatic,  a  monomaniac, 
for  writing  thus?  Yea,  verily.  But  though  I  am 
struck,  I  will  still  claim  a  hearing. 

If  you  deem  it  audacious  for  a  woman  to  attack 
so  terrible  a  giant,  let  me  plead  in  self-defence 
that,  deepty  moved  on  the  subject,  I  was  impelled 
to  go  forth,  and,  under  cover,  to  fire  a  few  shots. 
Through    the  encouragement  and  solicitations  of 


INTRODUCTION.  3 

many,  I  have  been  led  to  extend  my  investigations 
and  to  venture  on  a  bolder  assault.  Yet  in  this 
public  arraignment  of  tobacco,  a  power  so  high  in 
position,  so  well-nigh  supreme  in  influence,  I  have 
been  painfully  aware  of  my  difficult  and  delicate 
task,  and,  but  for  the  abundance  of  testimony 
against  the  despot,  should  never  have  gathered 
courage  to  prosecute  it. 

Great  pains  have  been  taken  to  authenticate  the 
statements  contained  in  these  papers.  And  I 
would  express  my  sense  of  obligation,  not  only  to 
those  able  writers  on  the  subject  from  whom  I 
have  gathered  much  of  my  material,  but  also  to 
the  various  medical  authorities  —  strangers  as  well 
as  friends  —  to  whose  courtesy  in  response  to  in- 
quiries I  have  been  indebted  in  the  performance  of 
my  work. 

If  I  have  written  strongly,  it  is  because  I  have 
felt  deeply.  But  however  strong  the  language 
used,  —  and  it  will  be  noted  that  the  sharpest, 
most  uncompromising  passages  are  quotations  from 
those  much  better  informed  on  this  subject  than 
myself,  —  it  has  been  far  from  my  thought  to  rep- 
resent the  tobacco-vice  as  the  only  or  the  greatest 
vice  in  the  world,  or  tobacco-votaries  as  sinners 
above  all  the  men  that  dwell  in  Galilee.  And  it 
has  been  frankly,  though  sorrowfully,  conceded 
that  among  these  votaries  are  men  of  unquestioned 
moral  and  spiritual  excellence. 


FINANCIAL  VIEW. 


QUANTITY    AND    COST. 

Some  years  since,  the  annual  production  of  to- 
bacco throughout  the  world  was  estimated  at  four 
billions  of  pounds.  This  mass,  if  transformed  into 
roll-tobacco  two  inches  in  diameter,  would  coil 
around  the  world  sixty  times  ;  or,  if  made  up  into 
tablets,  as  sailors  use  it,  would  form  a  pile  as  high 
as  an  Egyptian  pyramid.  Allowing  the  cost  of  the 
unmanufactured  material  to  be  ten  cents  a  pound, 
the  yearly  expense  of  this  poisonous  growth  amounts 
to  four  hundred  millions  of  dollars.  Put  into  mar- 
ketable shape,  the  annual  cost  reaches  one  thou- 
sand millions  of  dollars.  This  sum,  according  to 
careful  computation,  would  construct  two  railroads 
round  the  earth,  at  twenty  thousand  dollars  a  mile. 
It  would  build  a  hundred  thousand  churches,  each 
costin£  ten  thousand  dollars,  or  half  a  million  of 
school-houses,  each  costing  two  thousand ;  or  it 
would  employ  a  million  of  preachers  and  a  million 
teachers,  at  a  salary  of  five  hundred  dollars. 
4 


FINANCIAL  VIEW.  0 

What  more  effective,  pathetic  appeal  to  the 
head  and  the  heart  can  be  made  than  by  these 
figures?  Two  millions  of  tons  of  tobacco  annually 
consumed  by  smokers  and  snuffers  and  chewers ; 
while  from  every  part  of  the  habitable  globe  are 
hands  stretched  out  imploringly  for  the  bread  of 
life,  which  must  be  denied  for  lack  of  means  to 
send  it ! 

In  Great  Britain  alone  there  are  not  far  from 
three  hundred  thousand  tobacco-shops.  England 
prohibits  the  culture  of  the  weed,  that  she  may 
secure  larger  imports,  her  annual  receipts  amount- 
ing to  forty  million  dollars,  a  greater  revenue  than 
she  ffets  from  all  the  £old  mines  of  Australia. 

In  Austria,  the  duties  from  this  source  reach  the 
same  figures ;  while  in  France,  where  tobacco  is 
a  monopoly,  they7  come  up  to  sixty  millions.  In 
most  countries  official  statements  show  that  it  costs 
more  than  bread. 

In  the  United  States,  we  find,  from  the  Internal 
Revenue  Report,  that  above  ninety-five  million 
pounds  of  manufactured  tobacco  and  one  billion 
three  hundred  million  cigars  are  used  in  one  year, 
at  an  expense  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of 
dollars,  while  the  taxes  have  amounted  to  forty 
millions. 

In  the  city  of  New  York  above  seventy-five 
millions  of  cigars  are  annually  consumed,  and  at 
a  cost  of  more  than  nine  millions  of  dollars  — 
enough  cigars  to  build  a  wTall  from  the  Empire  City 
to  Albany. 


6  TOBACCO. 

An  English  firm  has  compiled  a  table  showing 
that  in  forty  years  the  amount  of  tobacco  manu- 
factured has  been  more  than  doubled. 

J.  J.  H.  Gregory,  of  Marblehead,  Mass.,  ascer- 
tained as  the  result  of  careful  inquiry  that  there 
were  sold  in  that  place  about  eight  hundred 
thousand  cigars,  fourteen  thousand  pounds  of 
tobacco  for  chewing  or  smoking  in  pipes,  and 
about  four  hundred  pounds  of  snuff;  and  all  that  in 
a  town  of  only  six  thousand  inhabitants  (in  1850)  ! 

In  Syracuse,  the  leading  city  of  Central  New 
York,  twenty-seven  millions  of  cigars  were  manu- 
factured during  the  year  1881. 

How  often  will  a  man  go  through  life  without 
owning  a  house,  when  the  money  he  expends  on 
this  narcotic,  if  put  on  interest,  would  be  ample 
for  the  purchase  of  one  !  How  many  a  family  is 
cramped  for  the  necessaries  of  life  because  the 
husband  and  father  wTill  not  give  up  his  cigar ! 
And  how  many  a  man,  reduced  to  beggary,  holds 
on  to  his  pipe  ! 

Wives  there  are  not  a  few  who  are  obliged  to 
sacrifice  their  artistic  tastes  to  this  juggernaut. 
Books,  music,  pictures,  excursions  with  the  chil- 
dren to  the  seaside  or  the  mountains,  a  thousand 
and  one  little  refinements  and  brighteners  of  the 
dull  routine  of  life  —  all  are  swallowed  up  by  his 
rapacious  maw.  No  matter  what  self-denials  the 
patient  wife  and  mother  may  endure,  provided  the 
husband  is  not  robbed  of  his  cigar. 

Suppose  a  young  mechanic,  whose  earnings  are 


FINANCIAL   VIEW.  7 

very  small,  expends  five  cents  a  day  for  tobacco. 
Instead  of  this  let  him  invest  the  money  at  com- 
pound interest.  The  amount  in  ten  years  will  be 
$240.54;  in  twenty  years,  $671.30;  in  thirty 
years,  $1,442.77. 

"Twenty  years  ago,"  remarked  a  gentleman, 
"  on  finding  how  much  money  I  was  wasting  upon 
tobacco,  I  stopped  using  it,  yearly  depositing  the 
amount  thus  saved.  When  it  had  accumulated 
to  three  thousand  dollars  I  built  with  it  a  house, 
which  I  call  my  smoke-house." 

Said  an  inveterate  smoker :  "  Twenty  thousand 
dollars  falls  short  of  what  I  have  spent  for  to- 
bacco." 

But  we  have  not  yet  done  with  figures.  In  a 
single  Western  town  $3,098  were  expended  for 
tobacco,  and  for  the  support  of  churches  and  schools 
only  $2,712. 

A  Methodist  pastor  states  that,  while  his  whole 
society  expended  in  a  year  only  $841  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  gospel  and  other  church  and  mission 
work,  sixty-seven  of  his  church  members  during 
the  same  time  spent  $845  for  tobacco. 

At  a  Methodist  Episcopal  Conference  held  in 
Massachusetts,  Bishop  Harris  expressed  the  opin- 
ion that  "  the  Methodist  Church  spends  more 
for  chewing  and  smoking  than  it  gives  toward  con- 
verting the  world." 

It  has  been  estimated  that  the  smokers  and 
chewers  among  the  preachers  and  members  of  the 
Cincinnati     Conference     alone     expend    annually 


8  TOBACCO. 

over  $180,000  for  tobacco,  while  there  are  many 
instances  where  from  live  to  ten  members  of  a  cir- 
cuit spend  more  for  this  weed  than  their  whole 
circuit  gives  for  all  the  church  charities  combined. 

It  was  estimated  from  the  internal  revenue  tax 
paid  in  the  fourth  district  of  Michigan,  one  of  six 
internal  revenue  districts,  that  the  tobacco  used  in 
that  district  must  have  cost  the  consumers  $1,500,- 
000  in  one  year,  —  about  ten  times  the  cost  of  sup- 
porting the  University  of  Michigan  and  the  stu- 
dents therein  for  the  same  time. 

From  the  Independent  we  learn  that  a  single 
New  Haven  firm  sells  one  hundred  and  twenty 
thousand  cigarettes  a  month  to  Yale  students,  or 
for  the  ten  months  of  the  year,  when  they  are  in 
town,  one  million  two  hundred  thousand,  at  an 
average  expense  of  about  eight  thousand  dollars  a 
year. 

There  are  many  religious  (  ?)  communities  which 
spend  an  aggregate  of  from  five  hundred  to  one 
thousand  dollars  every  year  for  this  drug  that  can- 
not afford  the  expense  of  a  minister. 

Three  hundred  dollars  a  year  for  tobacco,  and 
three  dollars  for  Bible,  tract,  and  mission  purposes. 
Eighty  dollars  for  tobacco,  and  twenty-five  cents 
for  home  missions.  Yet  these  are  but  samples 
of  almost  numberless  cases. 

In  a  Southern  Presbyterian  paper  a  correspond- 
ent states  that  K  in  a  town  of  five  thousand  inhabi- 
tants, in  North  Carolina,  sevent}r-five  thousand 
dollars'  worth  of  snuff  is  sold  every  year."     He 


FINANCIAL   VIEW.  9 

also  affirms  that  in  any  Southern  State  where  the 
negroes  compose  half  the  population,  "the  snuff 
which  is  sold  amounts  annually  to  more  than  the 
cost  of  all  the  farming  implements  of  every  kind, 
including  cotton-gins,  cotton-presses,  steam  en- 
gines for  farm  use,  horse-powers,  and  all  sorts  of 
mechanical  tools."  In  conclusion,  he  says:  "I 
stand  prepared  with  Chalmers'  challenge,  c  Give 
me  your  pinches  of  snuff  and  I  will  support  the 
church.'  Give  me  your  tobacco,  cigars,  and  snuff, 
and  I  will  support  the  whole  Southern  church,  and 
do  it  handsomely." 

It  is  stated  by  Rev.  Mr.  Evans,  formerly  presi- 
dent of  Hedding  College,  Abington,  111.,  that 
the  people  of  that  city  and  vicinity  have,  in  the 
course  of  twenty-four  years,  paid  eighty  thousand 
dollars  to  Abington  and  Hedding  Colleges,  while 
in  the  city  itself  twenty  thousand  dollars  are  ex- 
pended every  year  for  tobacco.  "  This  great  Chris- 
tian nation,"  he  affirms,  "pays  annually  forty  mil- 
lions for  its  religion,  and  two  hundred  millions  for 
its  tobacco ; "  adding,  "  we  make  an  estimate 
within  the  limits  of  the  facts,  when  we  say  that 
this  community,  city,  and  country  pay  as  much  for 
tobacco  as  they  do  for  their  religion  and  education 
combined." 

Said  the  late  President  Wayland  :  "  The  Ameri- 
can Board,  an  institution  of  world-wide  benevo- 
lence, and  which  collects  its  funds  from  all  the 
Northern  States,  does  not  receive  annually  as  much 
as  is  expended  for  cigars  in  the  single  city  of  New 


10  TOBACCO. 

York  !  "     What  a  record  to  appear  on  the  heavenly 
ledger ! 

COST   FROM    FIRES. 

The  destruction  of  property  from  fires  occa- 
sioned by  throwing  away  the  ends  of  cigars,  or 
matches  used  in  lighting  them,  comes  properly 
under  the  financial  head. 

It  is  stated  by  Dr.  Ritchie  that  in  London  fifty- 
three  fires  occurred  in  one  year  as  the  result  of 
smoking.  He  adds :  ff  I  have  more  than  once 
seen  a  carpenter  under  a  London  station  light  his 
pipe  and  cast  the  half-burnt  match  among  the 
shavings." 

From  the  throwing  down  of  a  cigar,  or  a  match 
used  in  lighting  it,  the  Bateman  Hotel  in  Pitts- 
burg, Penn.,  took  fire  and  was  destroyed.  The 
son  of  the  proprietor  was  fatally  burned,  while  the 
wife  and  four  daughters  perished  in  the  flames. 

What  shall  we  say  to  the  setting  on  fire  of  a 
forest  near  Lowell,  Mass.,  by  ministerial  cigars? 
to  the  burning  of  several  buildings  in  Fall  River 
from  juvenile  cigars  and  matches?  to  the  consum- 
ing of  a  church  in  Chicago  from  a  carpenter's  pipe  ? 
and  to  the  destruction  of  three  millions'  worth  ot 
property  in  one  of  our  cities  from  a  half-smoked 
ci^ar  which  a  vouns;  man  threw  down  ? 

So  infatuated  are  the  devotees  of  the  weed  that, 
in  spite  of  the  strictest  regulations,  workmen 
sometimes  persist  in  smoking  even  amid  the  most 
dangerous  surroundings. 

In  a  single  day  pipes  and  matches  were  found 


FINANCIAL   VIEW.  11 

in  the  pockets  of  fifty-eight  workmen  as  they  were 
just  entering  the  powder  works  at  Hounslow. 

The  blowing  up  of  a  powder-magazine  in  Mexico, 
and  many  houses  near  by,  with  the  destruction  of 
seventy  lives,  was  caused  by  the  dropping  of  a 
lighted  cigar. 

After  the  Blantyre  explosion  in  1879,  resulting 
in  the  death  of  twenty-eight  persons,  the  inspec- 
tor of  mines  found  matches  and  partly  smoked 
pipes  lying  near  the  bodies. 

It  was  from  a  match  thrown  down  by  a  smoking 
plumber  that  the  Harpers'  printing  establishment 
took  fire,  consuming  five  blocks,  at  a  loss  of  about 
a  million  of  dollars,  and  throwing  nearly  two  thou- 
sand people  out  of  work. 

By  a  spark  dropped  from  a  pipe  a  dreadful  fire 
was  kindled  in  Williamsburg,  destroying  three  ves- 
sels and  six  buildings,  with  the  lives  of  three 
persons. 

Says  an  insurance  agent :  M  One  third  or  more 
of  all  the  fires  in  my  circuit  have  originated  from 
matches  and  pipes.  Fires  in  England  and  America 
are  being  kindled  with  alarming  frequency  by 
smokers  casting  about  their  firebrands  or  half- 
burnt  matches." 

From  the  reports  of  various  journals  as  to  the 
burning  of  the  mail-car  on  the  New  York  Central 
Railroad,  there  seems  scarcely  a  doubt  that  it  was 
owing  to  the  smoking  habit.  Does  not  common 
prudence  require  the  absolute  interdiction  of 
cigars  by  all  employed  in  the  postal  department 


12  TOBACCO. 

during  the  hours  when  they  are  engaged  in  this 
service  ? 

An  account  lies  before  me  of  an  appalling  fire 
in  a  crowded  circus  in  Russia,  where  the  side  exits 
were  nailed  up  and  the  doors  of  the  main  entrance, 
which  opened  inward,  were  kept  closed  by  the 
pressure  of  the  frantic  throng.  Parents  threw  their 
children  into  the  ring,  and  then,  as  the  flames  in- 
creased, leaped  after  them,  the  scorched  and  mad- 
dened horses  also  plunging  into  the  area,  and,  in 
their  frenzy,  trampling  people  to  death.  And  the 
cause  of  this  terrific  fire,  in  which  about  three  hun- 
dred perished,  is  stated  to  have  been  a  cigarette 
thrown  carelessly  among  the  straw. 

LAWS    LIMITING   USE. 

We  find  from  "  Chambers'  Encyclopaedia  "  that  in 
Great  Britain  sailors  are  generally  limited  to  chew- 
ing, smoking  at  sea  being  prohibited,  or  greatly 
restricted  from  danger  of  fire. 

To  a  certain  extent,  the  laws  in  some  parts  of 
our  own  country  have  been  cognizant  of  this  dan- 
ger. In  1818  the  following  Acts  were  passed  in 
the  metropolis  of  Xew  England. 

"Every  person  who  shall  smoke,  or  have  in  his 
or  her  possession  any  lighted  pipe  or  cigar  in  any 
street,  lane,  or  passage-way,  or  on  any  wharf,  in 
said  city,  shall  forfeit  and  pay,  for  each  and  every 
offence,  the  sum  of  two  dollars." 

M  And,  further,  if  any  person  shall  have  in  his  or 
her  possession,  in  any  ropewalk,  or  barn,  or  stable, 


FINANCIAL   VIEW.  13 

any  fire,  lighted  pipe  or  cigar,  the  person  so  offend- 
ing shall  forfeit  and  pay,  for  each  offence,  a  sum 
not  exceeding  one  hundred  dollars,  nor  less  than 
twenty  dollars." 

The  first  of  these  Acts  was  never  enforced,  and 
having  remained  on  the  statute-book  a  dead  letter 
for  more  than  sixty  years,  in  1880  it  was  repealed. 

The  second,  which  is  a  law  necessary  to  safety, 
is  still  in  force  in  Boston,  and  ought  to  be  in  every 
city,  town,  and  hamlet  throughout  the  land,  simply 
as  contemplating  protection  against  fire. 

CULTURE. 

Much  might  be  said  under  the  financial  head  as 
to  the  culture  of  this  weed,  but  space  allows  only 
a  few  words. 

"The  tobacco  plant,"  writes  one,  "is  a  great 
exhauster.  Whether  raised  north  or  south,  on 
the  banks  of  the  Danube  or  the  Connecticut,  it  is 
all  the  same.  It  is  a  huge  glutton,  which,  con- 
suming all  about  it,  like  Homer's  glutton  of  old, 
cries  :  *  More  I  Give  me  more  !  '  " 

Another :  "  A  gum  issues  from  green  tobacco 
that  covers  everything  it  comes  in  contact  with. 
We  met  recently  a  troop  of  men,  fresh  from  the 
tobacco-field,  who  might  pass  for  Hottentots. 
They  looked  as  if  they  always  burrowed  in  the 
ground,  and  in  hands  and  face,  as  well  as  dress, 
were  the  color  of  woodchucks." 

Dr.  Humphrey  :  "  What  shall  we  say  to  raising 
tobacco  —  a  narcotic  plant  which  no  brute  will  eat, 


14  TOBACCO. 

which  affords  no  nutriment,  which  every  stomach 
loathes  till  cruelly  drugged  into  submission,  which 
stupefies  the  brain,  shatters  the  nerves,  destroys 
the  coats  of  the  stomach,  creates  an  insatiable  thirst 
for  stimulants,  and  prepares  the  system  for  fatal 
diseases  ?  " 

Prof.  Brewer :  "  The  sole  advantage  is  that  an 
individual  may  grow  rich  from  raising  it.  But 
what  one  man  gains  is  obtained  at  the  cost  of  his 
son  and  his  son's  son." 

Jefferson  :  "  It  is  a  culture  productive  of  infinite 
wretchedness." 

Gen.  John  H.  Cooke,  of  Virginia :  w  Tobacco 
exhausts  the  land  beyond  all  other  crops.  As 
proof  of  this,  every  homestead,  from  the  Atlantic 
border  to  the  head  of  tide  water,  is  a  mournful 
monument.  It  has  been  the  besom  of  destruction 
which  has  swept  over  this  once  fertile  region." 

Says  a  traveller :  "  The  old  tobacco-lands  of 
Maryland  and  Virginia  are  an  eyesore,  odious 
f  barrens,'  looking  as  though  blasted  by  some  ge- 
nius of  evil." 

There  are  those  who  claim  that  the  land  can  be 
kept  in  good  condition  by  the  free  use  of  fertilizers. 
But  the  experience  of  many  years  furnishes  evi- 
dence that  this  crop  ultimately  exhausts  the  soil, 
and  that,  in  consequence,  its  culture  is  deprecated 
by  the  better  class  of  agriculturists. 

Tobacco-raising  consumes  the  greater  part  of 
the  year.  The  seed  is  planted  about  the  middle  of 
April,  and  in  two  or  three  months  the  shoots  are 


FINANCIAL   VIEW.  15 

transplanted  or  set,  which  process  occupies  several 
weeks.  Besides  the  older  members  of  the  family, 
the  little  boys  and  girls  work  in  the  fields,  thus 
becoming  familiar  with  the  weed  from  their  earli- 
est childhood. 

In  September  the  plants  are  cut,  and,  after  lying 
some  hours  in  the  sun,  are  hung  under  cover  to 
be  cured.  When  the  winter  thaw  occurs,  they  are 
taken  to  a  room  where  the  leaves  are  stripped  from 
the  stalk  and  packed  in  bundles,  and  then  handled 
one  by  one,  to  be  arranged  in  grades,  or  sorted, 
not  being  carried  to  market,  however,  until  April. 
Thus,  throughout  the  year,  tobacco  is  the  great 
subject  of  conversation,  and,  as  it  is  an  uncertain 
crop,  the  mind  is  kept  in  an  absorbed,  anxious 
condition  till  it  is  delivered,  when  the  processes 
are  again  started.  Meantime,  other  crops  are 
mostly  neglected. 

This  culture  is  greatly  on  the  increase.  Among 
other  regions,  the  beautiful  Onondaga  valley  in 
New  York  State  is  becoming  more  and  more  devo- 
ted to  it.  The  reports  from  this  valley  as  to  its 
unfavorable  effect  upon  the  health  are  clear  and 
decisive.  Nor  is  this  strange  when  we  learn  that 
the  stripping  rooms  are  kept  at  a  high  temperature 
and  without  ventilation.  Thus  the  strippers  who 
work  here  for  several  months  every  year  are 
breathing  the  noxious  vapor  from  morning  till 
night.  Physicians  assert  that  in  this  way  many 
cases  of  tobacco-poisoning  occur.  One  instance 
is  given  of  an  infant  whose  death  ensued  in  con- 


16  TOBACCO. 

sequence,  the  mother  admitting  that  she  had  taken 
the  cradle  into  the  room  so  that  while  at  work  she 
might  care  for  her  child. 

That  the  physical  effects  are  due  solely  to  the 
poisoned  atmosphere  created  is  evident  from  the 
fact  that  many  who  raise  tobacco  do  not  use  it, 
some  even  considering  this  to  be  wrong.  The 
great  argument  is  :  — ff  If  I  don't  raise  it,  somebody 
else  will,  and  I  might  as  well  make  the  money  as 
anybody  else."  What  must  be  the  influence  of 
such  reasoning  upon  the  conscience  !  It  is  not 
surprising  that  ministers  should  consider  the  effect 
on  the  moral  and  spiritual  health  to  be  no  less 
unfavorable  than  on  the  physical.  It  was  the 
remark  of  one  not  a  professing  Christian, — "A 
revival  need  never  be  expected  where  everybody 
is  raising  tobacco."  There  are  clergymen  that 
have  had  experience  in  this  line  who  feel  that  the 
time  a  minister  spends  in  a  tobacco-region  is  vir- 
tually wasted. 

A  pastor  who  is  laboring  in  the  Onondaga 
valley  says :  "  Although  I  came  into  the  place 
without  knowledge  on  this  subject,  and  entirely 
unprejudiced,  yet  my  observation  has  satisfied 
me  that  tobacco-raising  injures  the  farms,  impairs 
the  health,  dulls  the  intellect,  and  blunts  the 
moral  and  religious  sensibilities." 

And  what  shall  be  said  of  cultivating  this  ex- 
hauster of  the  soil,  this  foulest,  most  destructive 
of  poisons  in  the  beautiful  Connecticut  valley,  the 
land  of  the  Pilgrims?  A  cruel  matricide,  which 
Christian  hands,  alas  !  join  in  perpetrating. 


FINANCIAL   VIEW.  17 

On  this  subject,  a  gentleman  of  large  experience 
writes  :  "  The  raising  of  tobacco  has  cursed  our 
fair  valley.  Hatfield,  for  instance,  some  twenty 
years  ago  the  richest  town  in  the  State  according 
to  its  population,  early  entered  into  the  craze  for 
gain  through  tobacco-raising.  As  a  result  nearly 
everj^one  has  failed  financially.  But  far  worse,  — 
our  farmers,  who  once  declared,  'I  would  cut  off 
my  right  hand  rather  than  engage  in  such  busi- 
ness,' seeing  their  neighbors  —  at  the  outset  — 
growing  rich,  gradually  choked  conscience  and  be- 
came absorbed  in  the  traffic.  This  has  demoralized 
the  people  and  paralyzed  the  church.  The  spirit- 
ual death  resting  upon  our  valley  may  to  a  great 
extent  be  traced  to  this  cause." 

Before  me  is  a  letter  from  Bishop  Huntington  of 
Central  New  York,  dated  June,  1884,  and  bearing 
on  the  same  point :  M  While  my  old  homestead  in 
Hadley,  Mass.,  lies  on  the  Connecticut  River, 
where  the  alluvial  soil  is  particularly  favorable  for 
profitable  tobacco  crops,  I  have  never  allowed  a 
plant  of  it  to  be  raised  on  the  farm.  There  is  an 
extraordinary  fact  connected  with  the  culture  there, 
which  is  attested  by  intelligent  residents  of  the 
town.  Since  1855  enormous  harvests  of  tobacco 
have  been  raised  and  carried  off  every  year,  — 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  pounds.  Yet,  by  the 
working  of  some  mysterious  law,  not  one  dollar 
can  be  found  to  show  for  it  in  all  the  property  in- 
vestments or  scenery  of  the  entire  population." 

When  there  was  some  querying  whether  so  sin- 


18  TOBACCO. 

gular  an  assertion  would  be  accepted,  he  replied : 
"My  statement  was,  I  believe,  literally  and  indis- 
putably true,  that  the  farmers  of  Old  Hadley  have, 
for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  been  planting,  raising, 
and  gathering  tobacco  as  the  principal  crop  of  the 
soil ;  yet  that  there  is  in  the  whole  town  not  one 
visible  sign  of  improvement,  enrichment,  thrift,  or 
prosperity  to  show  for  it.  In  all  these  respects 
the  town,  from  end  to  end  and  side  to  side,  has 
lost  rather  than  gained.  It  is  not  stransre  that  vou 
are  perplexed  by  a  fact  so  paradoxical.  So  am  I. 
The  mystery  has  sometimes  struck  me  as  contain- 
ing a  silent  judgment  of  God  on  the  abuse  of  his 
ground." 

Alluding  to  some  natural  explanations  that  might 
be  suggested,  he  adds  :  "These  only  partially  ac- 
count for  a  blight  so  persistent  and  universal."' 

From  the  Boston  Transcript  we  learn  that  enough 
Connecticut  tobacco  has  been  produced  in  a  single 
year  to  make  nine  hundred  millions  of  cigars  ! 

Most  eloquently  writes  Prof.  Bascom  :  w  Take 
the  land,  the  sunshine,  the  rain  which  God  gives 
you,  and  set  them  all  at  work  to  grow  tobacco; 
throw  this,  as  your  product,  into  the  world's  mar- 
ket ;  buy  with  it  bread,  clothing,  and  shelter, 
books  for  yourselves,  instruction  for  your  children, 
consideration  in  the  community,  and  perchance 
the  gospel  of  grace  ;  pay  ever  and  everywhere,  for 
the  good  you  get,  tobacco,  only  tobacco  —  tobacco, 
that  nourishes  no  man,  clothes  no  man,  instructs 
no  man,  purifies  no  man,  blesses  no  man  ;  tobacco, 


FINANCIAL   VIEW.  19 

that  begets  inordinate  and  loathsome  appetite  and 
disease  and  degradation,  that  impoverishes  and 
debases  thousands  and  adds  incalculably  to  the 
burden  of  evil  the  world  bears  ;  but  call  not  this 
exchange  honest  trade,  or  this  gnawing  at  the  root 
of  social  well-being  getting  an  honest  livelihood. 
Think  of  God's  justice,  the  honesty  he  requires, 
and  cover  not  your  sin  with  a  lie.  Turn  not  His 
earth  and  air,  given  to  minister  to  the  sustenance 
and  joy  of  man,  into  a  narcotic,  deadening  life  and 
poisoning  its  current,  and  then  traffic  with  this  for 
your  own  good." 

OTHER   TOBACCO   COSTS. 

Still  another  point  deserves  consideration.  Be- 
sides the  hours  that  many  spend  on  tobacco,  from 
which,  to  say  the  least,  they  get  no  benefit,  is  the 
fact  that  the  narcotic,  by  diminishing  their  force, 
tends  to  lessen  the  value  of  their  remaining  time. 

Moreover,  it  is  estimated  by  many  medical  men 
that  the  victims  of  this  weed,  on  an  average,  cut 
short  their  life  about  one  quarter.  Thus,  from  an 
average  life  of  forty-five  to  fifty,  about  ten  or 
twelve  are  sacrificed  to  this  evil-doer. 

Nor  is  this  all.  In  order  to  make  a  fair  esti- 
mate of  what  this  drug  costs  the  country,  we  ought 
to  visit  our  almshouses  and  houses  of  correction, 
our  reform  schools,  insane  asylums,  jails,  and  peni- 
tentiaries, to  which  poverty,  disease,  and  crime, 
resulting  from  the  tobacco-fiend,  with  intempe- 
rance following  in  its  wake,  bring  hundreds  and 


20  TOBACCO. 

thousands.  For  the  support  of  all  these  we  are 
taxed,  and  that  doubly,  since  we  are  also  assessed 
to  supply  many  of  them  with  the  very  poison  that 
brought  them  there. 

In  the  old  snuff-taking  days  a  senatorial  snuff- 
box was  kept  on  the  stand  of  the  Vice-President 
for  the  use  of  our  legislators  !  The  annual  report 
of  the  expense  of  our  National  Senate  still  con- 
tains the  item  of  snuff,  which  has  always  been 
furnished  at  the  expense  of  government,  and  which 
may,  not  improperly,  be  reckoned  among  tobacco- 
costs. 

YORKTOWN    BILL. 

But  although  in  respect  to  this  form  of  tobacco, 
there  may  be  some  diminution,  we  have  small 
cause  for  self-gratulation.  Examine  the  bill  for 
"rum  and  cigars"  which  were  furnished  to  the 
Centennial  Commission  on  their  trip  to  Yorktown, 
by  order  of  the  congressional  committee.  In  the 
list  of  items  we  find  set  down,  among  the  large 
variety  of  liquors  :  — 

3200  Reina  Cigars $400.00 

3600  Concha  Cigars 594.00 

2000  Londres  Cigars 340.00 

1500  Domestic  Cigars 120.00 

17  pounds  Gravely  Tobacco 11.20 

1  gross  Fine  Cut 9.00 

1000  Lone  Fisherman  Cigarettes 6.00 

1000  Richmond  Gem  Cigarettes 6.50 

The  cost  of  this  convivial  provision  was  nearly 
seven  thousand  dollars,  and  all  at  the  expense  of 
the  people. 


FINANCIAL   VIEW.  21 

What  a  picture !  The  old  pagan  bacchanals 
over  again  in  this  grand  Republic  in  the  year  of 
our  Lord  1881 ! 

There  are  Congressmen  who  urge  in  defence  of 
this  course  that  if  we  entertain  visitors  from  abroad 
we  must  entertain  them  according  to  their  own 
customs.  Must  we,  then,  provide  dog-meat  for 
our  Chinese  guests,  and  share  it  with  them  ?  Let 
us  not  plead  that  national  hospitality  required  this 
at  our  hands  —  not,  certainly,  till  we  have  forgot- 
ten the  disgraceful  arrangements  in  connection  with 
the  funeral  cortege  of  our  lamented  Garfield. 

TOBACCO   CENSUS. 

The  United  States  census  of  the  tobacco  crop 
for  1880  is  truly  a  disheartening  document.  With 
the  honorable  exceptions  of  Colorado  and  Wyo- 
ming, Montana  and  Utah,  all  the  States  and  Terri- 
tories are  implicated  in  this  business.  The  number 
of  acres  devoted  to  the  weed  throughout  the  coun- 
try was  638,841.  The  number  of  pounds  raised 
was  nearly  500,000,000,  —  bringing  a  vast  revenue 
of  gold  and  silver  to  the  government  coffers,  and 
an  equally  vast  revenue  of  penury,  wretchedness, 
and  shame  to  countless  homes  and  hearts. 

During  the  year  1882  more  than  three  thousand 
millions  of  cigars  and  six  hundred  millions  of  ciga- 
rettes were  manufactured  in  our  country,  showing 
an  advance  in  both  together,  over  the  preceding 
year,  of  three  hundred  millions. 

In  the  city  of  New  York  twenty  thousand  per- 


22  TOBACCO. 

sons  are  engaged  in  the  cigar  manufacture,  a  num- 
ber of  them  being  American  women.  "  The  hands 
in  a  single  factory  consume  three  million  cigars  a 
year,  saving  the  tobacco  out  of  their  allotment  and 

rolling  and  filling  the  cigars  for  themselves." 

©  ©  © 

The  tobacco  manufacturers  urge  a  reduction  of 
the  tobacco  tax,  to  promote  their  own  moneyed  in- 
terests, and  for  the  same  reason  oppose  its  aboli- 
tion ;  while  members  of  Congress  advocate  its  abo- 
lition in  order  to  cheapen  the  article.  In  strange 
contrast  with  these  attempts  we  find  that  King 
James  I.  of  England  raised  the  tobacco  tax  from 
twopence  a  pound  to  six  shillings  and  tenpence. 
To  do  this,  as  he  did,  without  the  consent  of  Par- 
liament, was  an  unwarranted  act ;  yet  the  legisla- 
tion was  in  the  right  direction,  while  ours,  should 
these  unwise  attempts  succeed,  would  be  in  the 
wrong.  Until  the  happy  day  arrives  when  this  man- 
ufacture shall  be  prohibited  by  our  national  gov- 
ernment, may  we  be  saved  from  any  disastrous 
congressional  acts  that  shall  make  the  poison  still 
freer  to  the  community  ! 


PHYSICAL  AND  INTELLECTUAL  VIEW. 


NICOTINE    POISONING;    EXPERIMENTS;    FACTS. 

It  is  upon  the  effects  of  the  tobacco-habit  on 
body  and  mind  that  this  whole  question  hinges. 
And  these  effects  must  be  determined  by  the  opin- 
ions of  medical  and  scientific  men,  founded  on 
experience  and  observation,  with  such  facts  as 
corroborate  them.  It  has  therefore  been  deemed 
important  to  treat  this  point  with  great  fulness, 
and  to  summon  many  witnesses  as  to  the  various 
diseases,  bodily  and  mental,  charged  to  the  ac- 
count of  the  weed. 

A  chemical  examination  of  a  tobacco-leaf  shows 
its  surface  dotted  with  minute  glands,  which  con- 
tain an  oil  found  in  no  other  plant,  the  proportion 
of  this  oil  being  seven  per  cent  of  the  whole 
weight  of  the  leaf.  This  oil  is  nicotine.  It  is  this 
nicotine  —  one  of  the  subtlest  of  poisons  —  that 
determines  the  strength  of  tobacco.  Physicians 
who  have  studied  its  effects  thus  sum  them  up : 

"Nicotine    primarily     lowers    the    circulation, 

23 


24  TOBACCO. 

quickens  the  respiration,  and  excites  the  muscular 
system ;  but  its  ultimate  effect  is  general  exhaus- 
tion. As  administered  in  even  the  minutest  doses, 
the  results  are  alarming,  and  in  a  larger  quantity 
will  occasion  a  man's  death  in  from  two  to  five 
minutes." 

W.  A.  Axon  asserts  in  the  "Popular  Science 
Monthly  "  that  "  the  nicotine  in  one  cigar,  if  ex- 
tracted and  administered  in  a  pure  state,  would 
suffice  to  kill  two  men." 

The  Indians  used  to  poison  their  arrows  by  dip- 
ping them  into  nicotine,  convulsions  and  often 
death  being  the  results  of  these  arrow  wounds. 

In  a  paper  upon  Tobacco,  read  before  a  Sanitary 
Convention  in  Michigan  in  1883,  Lemuel  Clute, 
Esq.,  a  lawyer,  quotes  freely  from  a  work  on 
poisons,  by  Dr.  Taylor,  in  which  many  diseases 
are  attributed  to  the  use  of  the  weed.  He  says  : 
K I  have  cited  thus  fully  from  Taylor  on  Poisons, 
because  he  is  a  recognized  authority  in  courts,  and 
no  one  can  charge  him  with  being  a  temperance 
fanatic.  The  principles  he  has  gathered  and  dis- 
cussed in  his  book  are  constantly  referred  to,  and 
are  largely  the  guide  of  our  judges  in  passing  upon 
the  questions  of  the  liberty,  life,  and  death  of  our 
citizens." 

Brodie,  Queen  Victoria's  physician,  made  sev- 
eral experiments  with  nicotine,  applying  it  to  the 
tongues  of  a  mouse,  a  squirrel,  and  a  dog,  death 
being  produced  in  every  instance.  A  frog  placed 
in  a  receiver  containing  a   drop  of  nicotine  in  a 


PHYSICAL    AND   INTELLECTUAL   VIEW.  25 

little  water  will  die  in  a  few  hours.  Franklin 
found  that  if  the  oil  floating  on  the  surface  of 
water,  when  a  stream  of  tobacco-smoke  has  passed 
through  it,  is  applied  to  the  tongue  of  a  cat,  it 
shortly  causes  death.  Put  on  a  cat's  tongue  one 
drop  of  nicotine,  and  in  spite  of  its  K  seven  lives," 
it  instantly  writhes  in  convulsions,  and  dies. 

Set  an  open  bottle  containing  a  small  quantity 
of  this  oil  under  an  inverted  jar.  Place  a  mouse 
or  a  rat  under  the  jar,  taking  care  that  the  fresh 
air  is  not  excluded.  Death  presently  follows, 
simply  from  the  animal's  breathing  the  poisoned 
atmosphere.  And  this  same  tobacco-laden  atmos- 
phere is  that  which  we  find  everywhere,  and  from 
which  there  is  no  escape. 

Put  a  tobacco  victim  into  a  hot  bath  ;  let  him  re- 
main there  till  a  free  perspiration  takes  place  ;  then 
drop  a  fly  into  the  water,  and  instant  death  ensues. 

Hold  white  paper  over  tobacco-smoke,  and  when 
the  cigar  is  consumed,  scrape  the  condensed  smoke 
from  the  paper  and  put  a  very  small  amount  on 
the  tongue  of  a  cat ;  in  a  few  minutes  it  will  die 
of  paralysis. 

Pack  a  tobacco  votary  in  a  wet  sheet,  and  when 
he  is  taken  out  the  whole  room  is  filled  with  the 
odor.  No  wonder  that  wolves,  buzzards,  and  can- 
nibals retreat  in  disgust  from  the  flesh  of  such  a 
man  ! 

Among  the  animals  denominated  irrational  it  is 
asserted  that  none  can  use  the  weed  except  the 
loathsome    tobacco-worm    and   the    rock-ooat    of 


26  TOBACCO. 

Africa.  Of  the  latter,  the  smell  is  so  offensive 
that  every  other  animal  instinctively  shuns  it. 

At  Dartmouth  Park,  England,  an  old  wooden 
pipe  was  given  to  a  three-year-old  to  blow  soap- 
bubbles  with,  the  pipe  being  first  carefully  washed 
out.  The  boy  wras  taken  ill,  and  died  in  three 
days,  his  death,  according  to  medical  evidence, 
being  caused  by  the  nicotine  which  he  had  sucked 
in  while  blowing  bubbles. 

The  daughter  of  a  tobacco  merchant,  from  sim- 
ply sleeping  in  a  chamber  where  a  large  quantity 
of  the  weed  had  been  rasped,  died  soon  after  in 
frightful  convulsions. 

A  child  picked  up  a  quid  that  had  been  thrown 
on  the  floor,  and,  taking  it  for  a  raisin,  put  it 
into  her  mouth,  dying  of  the  poison  the  same  day. 

Bocarme,  of  Belgium,  was  murdered  in  two 
minutes  and  a  half  by  a  little  nicotine.  A  very 
moderate  quantity  introduced  into  the  system,  or 
even  applying  the  moistened  leaves  over  the 
stomach,  has  suddenly  extinguished  life.  Indeed, 
so  thoroughly  does  tobacco  poison  the  blood  that, 
according  to  the  testimony  of  a  physician  to  a  dis- 
pensary in  St.  Giles,  "  leeches  are  instantly  killed 
by  the  blood  of  smokers  ;  so  suddenly  that  they 
drop  off  dead  immediately  when  they  are  applied." 

In  this  view,  wre  cannot  wonder  that  it  is  pro- 
nounced perilous  for  a  delicate  person  to  sleep  in 
the  chamber  with  a  habitual  smoker. 

Medical  journals  report  the  poisoning  of  babes 
from  sharing  the  bed  of  a  tobacco  father,  and  even 


PHYSICAL    AND   INTELLECTUAL   VIEW.  27 

from  being  in  the  room  where  he  smoked  ;  and  infant 
deaths  have  occurred  from  no  other  cause.  Says  Dr. 
Trail :  "  Many  an  infant  has  been  killed  outright 
in  its  cradle  by  the  tobacco-smoke  with  which  a 
thoughtless  father  filled  an  unventilated  room." 

Not  a  few  physicians  regard  much  of  the  invalid- 
ism, and  also  the  positive  ill-health  of  women,  as 
due  to  the  poisoned  atmosphere  created  around 
them  by  the  smoking  members  of  their  household. 

A  gentleman  in  a  Saratoga  hotel  said  to  a  doc- 
tor :  "  See  that  portly  man  yonder  smoking  like  a 
volcano;  he  stands  the  racket;  smoking  don't  kill 
him."  "  No,  but  he  is  killing  his  wife.  See  her 
by  his  side,  pale,  shrivelled,  tremulous,  sinking 
into  the  grave.  So  far  as  health  is  concerned,  she 
might  about  as  well  have  wedded  a  cask  of  to- 
bacco." 

A  French  journal  reports  the  case  of  a  farmer 
who,  with  two  companions,  smoked  one  evening 
in  a  chamber  where  a  young  man  was  asleep. 
When,  at  midnight,  the  visitors  withdrew,  the 
farmer  found  the  youth  insensible.  A  doctor  was 
summoned,  but  all  efforts  for  his  restoration  were 
fruitless.  At  the  post  mortem  it  was  pronounced 
that  he  had  died  of  congestion  of  the  brain,  caused 
by  the  respiration  of  tobacco-smoke  during  sleep. 

Tobacco  commences  its  dreadful  work  in  the 
factories,  the  operatives  inhaling  its  dust  and  ab- 
sorbing its  poison,  so  that,  according  to  the  doc- 
tors, M  it  takes  only  four  years  to  kill  off  the 
worker."      Dr.    Kostral,   physician   to   the    royal 


28  TOBACCO. 

tobacco  factory  in  Moravia,  reports  that,  of  a  hun- 
dred boys  entering  the  works,  seventy-two  fell 
sick  daring  the  first  six  months,  while  deaths  fre- 
quently occur  there  from  the  nicotine  poisoning. 

Three  or  four  women,  after  drinking  fresh 
coffee,  were  seriously  affected  with  faintness,  ver- 
tigo, nausea,  convulsions,  and  loss  of  conscious- 
ness. It  was  discovered  that  the  coffee-beans  had 
been  picked  out  from  the  store-sweepings,  consist- 
ing principally  of  tobacco  leaves,  among  which  the 
coffee  had  got  mixed  and  lay  for  a  time  exposed 
to  the  rain. 

A  squadron  of  hussars  hid  tobacco  leaves  in  their 
breasts  for  smuggling  purposes.  Every  man  of 
them  was  seized  with  headache,  vertigo,  and  vom- 
iting. Soldiers  have  sometimes  purposely  disabled 
themselves  for  war  by  applying  these  leaves  to  the 
pit  of  the  arm,  thus  inducing  alarming  symptoms. 

A  Frenchman  living  near  Paris,  having  cleaned 
his  pipe  with  a  knife,  but  neglecting  to  wipe  it, 
subsequently  happened  to  cut  one  of  his  fingers. 
The  wound  was  so  slight  that  he  thought  nothing 
of  it.  A  few  hours  later,  however,  the  finger 
grew  painful  and  swelled,  the  inflammation  rapidly 
spreading  through  the  arm.  Doctors  were  sum- 
moned, but  the  case  remained  a  mystery  till,  in 
answer  to  inquiries,  the  enigma  was  explained. 
All  remedies  proved  ineffectual,  and  the  man's 
condition  grew  so  alarming,  that  he  was  taken  to 
the  hospital,  where  the  arm  was  amputated  as  the 
only  chance  of  saving  his  life. 


PHYSICAL    AND   INTELLECTUAL    VIEW.  29 


CONSIDERED   MEDICALLY,  THIS  WEED  RANKS  AMONG 
THE    DEADLIEST    POISONS. 

This  must  be  a  very  sick  world  to  require  nearly 
as  much  medicine  as  food.  Though  the  scientific 
men  who  have  charge  of  the  public  and  private 
health  very  seldom  prescribe  tobacco,  they  all 
admit  that  it  is  a  powerful  medicinal  agent.  As  a 
poison,  it  stands  next  to  strychnine.  Its  method 
of  cure  is  by  partially  killing. 

In  a  late  treatise  on  Physiology  it  is  stated  :  "To- 
bacco produces  remarkable  effects  on  the  system, 
whether  it  be  taken  into  the  stomach,  or  applied 
to  portions  of  the  body  from  which  the  skin  has 
been  removed.  In  the  latter  instance  it  is  absorbed 
into  the  blood,  and  its  use  is  attended  with  great 
danger,  sometimes  with  death." 

Brodie  :  "  It  powerfully  controls  the  action  of 
the  heart  and  arteries,  producing  invariably  a 
weak,  tremulous  pulse,  with  all  the  apparent  symp- 
toms of  approaching  death." 

Another  physician  :  "  If  we  wish  at  any  time  to 
prostrate  the  powers  of  life  in  the  most  sudden 
and  awful  manner,  Ave  have  but  to  administer  a 
dose  of  tobacco  and  our  object  is  accomplished." 

"  The  effect  on  the  heart  is  not  caused  by  direct 
action,  but  by  paralyzing  the  minute  vessels  which 
form  the  batteries  of  the  nervous  system.  The 
heart,  freed  from  their  control,  increases  the 
rapidity  of  its  strokes,  with  an  apparent  accession, 
but  real  waste  of  force." 


30  TOBACCO. 

According  to  Dr.  Druhen's  testimony,  w  a  boy 
of  fourteen,  who  smoked  fifteen  cents'  worth  of 
tobacco  for  tbe  toothache,  fell  down  senseless  and 
died  tbe  same  da}'." 

It  was  formerly  used  as  an  emetic,  from  its 
prompt  action,  all  tbe  powers  of  tbe  system 
rallying  to  expel  tbe  enemy.  A  poultice  of  tobac- 
co placed  on  tbe  stomacb  of  a  child  dying  with 
croup  caused  deatbly  nausea  and  instant  vomiting. 
Tbe  physician,  wbo  arrived  shortly  after,  admitted 
tbat  it  bad  saved  tbe  child's  life,  but  pronounced 
it  to  be  an  exceedingly  dangerous,  and  often  fatal, 
remedy. 

Xo  one  will  deny  tbat  tobacco  is  a  drug.  And 
it  is  an  axiom  among  physicians  —  whoever  among 
them  practically  may  disregard  it, —  tbat  no  drug 
should  ever  be  token  in  health. 

From  Dr.  Stille's  Therapeutics  and  Materia 
Medica  we  learn  that  w  tobacco  as  a  therapeutic 
agent,  belongs  to  tbe  same  class  witb  belladonna, 
alcohol,  and  opium,  but  that  its  use  is  restricted 
witbin  comparatively  narrow  limits,  because  of  tbe 
distressing  symptoms  which,  even  in  moderate 
doses,  it  occasions  ;  tbe  risk  of  fatal  consequences  : 
and  tbe  uncertainty  in  regard  to  the  degree  of  its 
influence  upon  individuals." 

Dr.  Grimshaw :  "It  is  believed  by  all  judicious 
practitioners  too  dangerous  to  be  employed  as  a 
medicine.  Tbe  benefits,  as  a  remedy,  do  not 
counterbalance  the  risk  of  using  it.  Yet  so  in- 
sidious are  its  effects,  tbat  very  few  have  regarded 


PHYSICAL    AXD    INTELLECTUAL    VIEW.  31 

it  as  swelling  the  bills  of  mortality.  It  is,  never- 
theless, true  that  multitudes  are  carried  to  the 
grave  every  year  by  tobacco  alone." 

Dr.  Clay :  "  I  have  been  called  to  children 
writhing  in  horrid  convulsions  from  having  the  de- 
coction of  tobacco  applied  for  the  scald  head,  and 
I  have  always  experienced  great  difficulty  in  re- 
storing them ;  three  instances,  in  my  own  recollec- 
tion, were  attended  with  fatal  results." 

Dr.  Newell,  a  Boston  practitioner  :  "  Small  doses 
of  the  oil  of  tobacco  administered  to  a  dog  for  a 
few  weeks  cause  marasmus  and  a  withering  of  the 
spinal  cord.  The  dog  soon  drags  the  hind  legs, 
sheds  his  hair,  sloughs  off  the  eyelids,  becomes 
blind,  and  dies.  Thus  it  is  seen  that  nicotine  is 
one  of  the  most  deadly  poisons,  its  fatal  results 
being  produced  in  less  time  than  any  other  poison 
except  prussic  acid." 

In  confirmation  of  this,  it  is  asserted  by  M.  Or- 
fila,  president  of  the  Paris  Medical  Academy,  that 
"  Tobacco  is  the  most  subtile  poison  known  to  the 
chemist,  except  the  deadly  prussic  acid." 

A  prominent  tobacco  manufacturer  declares  that 
nothing  ever  goes  into  tobacco  so  deleterious  to 
the  constitution  as  tobacco  itself. 

That  its  legitimate  results  are  not  invariably  man- 
ifested is  owing  to  the  marvellous  power  in  the 
human  system  to  tolerate  poison  taken  gradually. 
It  is  with  tobacco  as  with  laudanum,  opium,  ar- 
senic, whiskey,  and  other  liquors,  to  the  use  of 
which  a  man  may,  by  degrees,  habituate  himself, 


32  TOBACCO. 

so  that  he  can  take  it  with  seeming  impunity ;  yet 
it  is  none  the  less  a  poison,  slowly,  it  may  be,  but 
surely,  impairing  the  organism  and  inducing 
diseases  which  strike  at  the  life  forces.  And  the 
victim  may  be  quite  sure  that  nature  will,  in  the 
end,  reassert  herself,  and  exact  a  bitter  atonement 
for  all  such  infractions  of  her  wholesome  laws. 

"  The  effect  of  tobacco  on  the  glandular  system 
is  not  less  evil  than  on  the  nervous.  If  there  is 
any  tuberculous  tendency,  this  enemy  searches  it 
out,  excites  it,  and  sends  its  victim  to  the  grave  by 
rapid  stages.  Whatever  weak  spot  there  is  in  the 
constitution,  this  insidious  thief  creeps  into,  mining 
and  sapping  about  it  until  the  fabric  crumbles  into 
dust.  In  some  stages  of  its  action,  it  excites  the 
passions  abnormally,  and  later  they  are  deadened 
as  unnaturally." 

A  promising  young  man  of  fine  constitution  and 
correct  habits,  with  the  single  exception  of  smok- 
ing, was  found  dead  in  his  bed.  Examination 
showed  the  blood  in  one  lung  completely  black 
from  the  disintegrating  effects  of  tobacco.  Accord- 
ing to  the  doctors  it  was  this  which  killed  him. 

Such  are  the  characteristics  of  tobacco,  making 
its  prescription  permissible  only  in  the  extremest 
cases,  and  with  the  utmost  caution.  Yet  this 
most  powerful,  most  fatal  of  all  drugs  it  is  which 
has  come  to  be  regarded  by  thousands  as  a  daily 
necessity  —  more  to  them  than  meat,  or  drink,  or 
any  earthly  good. 

Writes  Dr.   Solly,  for  many  years  the  medical 


PHYSICAL    AND   INTELLECTUAL   VIEW.  33 

examiner  of  various  English  life  insurance  offices  : 
"  The  profession  have  no  idea  of  the  ignorance  of 
the  public  regarding  the  nature  of  tobacco.  Even 
intelligent,  well-educated  men  stare  in  astonishment 
when  you  tell  them  that  it  is  one  of  the  most 
powerful  poisons.  Now,  is  this  right?  Has  the 
medical  profession  done  its  duty  ?  Ought  we  not, 
as  a  body,  to  have  told  the  public  that,  of  all  our 
poisons,  it  is  the  most  insidious,  uncertain,  and, 
in  full  doses,  the  most  deadly? 

M  What  a  blessing  it  would  have  been  to  man- 
kind if  all  men  had  shrunk  from  this  plague  of  the 
brain  as  did  the  first  Napoleon  !  One  inhalation 
was  enough.  In  disgust,  he  exclaimed,  rOh,  the 
swine  !  my  stomach  turns.' 

,f  In  the  course  of  my  practice  I  have  met  with 
many  who,  like  myself,  have  abandoned  smoking. 
I  have  never  found  one  who  does  not  assert  most 
positively  that  he  has  been  in  better  health  since, 
and  that  his  intellectual  activity  has  increased.  I 
may  be  mistaken,  but  I  believe  that  our  greatest 
men,  statesmen,  law}rers,  warriors,  physicians, 
and  surgeons,  have  either  not  been  smokers,  or,  if 
sn>okers,  that  they  have  died  prematurely." 

EFFECTS    ON    CHILDREN  AND    YOUNG   MEN  ;    LOWER- 
ING   SCHOLARSHIP. 

Dr.  Willard  Parker :  "  Tobacco  is  ruinous  in 
our  schools  and  colleges,  dwarfing  body  and 
mind." 

Dr.   Ferguson :    "  I   believe   that   no   one   who 


34  TOBACCO. 

smokes  tobacco  before  the  bodily  powers  are  de- 
veloped ever  makes  a  strong,  vigorous  man." 

Prof.  Richard  McSherry,  president  of  the  Balti- 
more Academy  of  Medicine  :  f?  The  effect  of  to- 
bacco on  schoolboys  is  so  marked  as  not  to  be 
open  for  discussion. 

From  "  Lessons  on  the  Human  Body  : n  w  To- 
bacco, like  alcohol,  and  for  nearly  the  same  rea- 
sons, injures  the  brain,  deranges  the  entire  nervous 
system,  spoils  the  appetite  for  wholesome  food, 
lowers  the  life  forces,  injures  the  lungs  and  heart, 
and  depresses  the  spirits.  When  indulged  in  by 
young  persons,  it  saps  the  foundation  of  health  and 
dwarfs  the  body  and  mind." 

Dr.  B.  W.  Richardson  :  ?f  The  effects  of  this  agent, 
often  severe  even  on  those  who  have  attained  to 
manhood,  are  specially  injurious  to  the  young.  In 
these  the  habit  of  smoking  causes  impairment  of 
growth,  premature  manhood,  and  physical  pros- 
tration." 

A  superintendent  of  education  in  Vermont  gives 
the  case  of  a  boy  of  fourteen  who  fell  unaccounta- 
bly behind  his  class.  The  incapacity  thus  evinced 
in  one  naturally  bright  was  a  puzzle  to  his  teachers. 
At  last  he  sickened  and  died,  when  it  was  found 
that  he  was  killed  by  tobacco,  to  which  he  was  in 
the  habit  of  helping  himself  privately  from  his 
fathers  store. 

At  an  examination  for  admission  to  the  Free 
College  of  Xew  York,  out  of  nine  hundred  girls, 
six  hundred  and   sixty,  or  seventy-one  per  cent. 


PHYSICAL   AND    INTELLECTUAL    VIEW.  35 

passed,  while  only  forty-eight  per  cent  of  the  boys 
could  enter,  the  difference  being  ascribed  to  the 
stupefying  effect  of  tobacco. 

A  prominent  teacher  in  Syracuse  writes  :  "  After 
long  experience,  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  many  boys  from  all  departments  of  the  public 
schools  become  incapable  of  prolonged  mental 
effort,  and  are  lacking  in  refinement  and  in  interest 
and  attention  to  school  duties,  in  consequence  of 
the  use  of  tobacco,  and  that  very  many  of  the  fail- 
ures in  promotion  from  year  to  year  are  due  to  the 
same  cause." 

The  testimony  on  this  point,  both  as  to  our  own 
and  foreign  countries,  is  clear  and  overwhelming. 
Statistics  obtained  from  European  institutions  show 
that  lads  whose  standing  had  been  good  before  they 
began  to  smoke  or  chew  were  invariably  found, 
after  they  became  addicted  to  either  habit,  to  fall 
below  the  school  average. 

In  1862  the  Emperor  Louis  Napoleon,  learning 
that  paralysis  and  insanity  had  increased  with  the 
increase  of  the  tobacco  revenue,  ordered  an  exam- 
ination of  the  schools  and  colleges,  and  finding 
that  the  average  standing  in  both  scholarship  and 
character  was  lower  among  those  who  used  the 
weed  than  among  the  abstainers,  issued  an  edict 
forbidding  its  use  in  all  the  national  institutions. 

The  investigation  of  the  public  schools  of  France 
by  medical  and  scientific  men  has  been  very  thor- 
ough. M.  Bertillon  reported  some  of  the  results 
in  the  Union  Medicate.    Facts  as  to  the  Polytechnic 


36  TOBACCO. 

School  in  Paris  are  given  in  the  Dublin  Medical 
Press:  "It  is  shown  that  smokers  have  proved 
themselves,  in  the  various  competitive  examina- 
tions, far  inferior  to  others.  Not  only  in  the  ex- 
aminations on  entering  the  school  are  they  in  a 
lower  rank,  but  in  the  various  ordeals  of  the  year 
the  average  rank  of  the  smoker  has  constantly 
fallen." 

Science  and  Health  contains  the  translation  of  a 
report  on  this  subject  by  Dr.  Constan,  one  of  the 
medical  men  employed  in  the  investigations  spoken 
of,  and  which  covered  the  ground  from  1876  to 
1880.  He  says  :  "  Our  inquiries  have  extended  to 
three  groups  of  educational  establishments,  viz.  : 
primary,  secondary,  and  higher,  or  special  schools. 
Whether  the  use  of  tobacco  is  entirely  prohibited, 
or  only  indulged  in  surreptitiously,  or  on  going-out 
days,  or  permitted  under  certain  restrictions,  and 
consequently  more  largely  practised,  the  figures 
show  that  it  affects  the  quality  of  the  studies  in  a 
constant  ratio,  and  this  influence  is  more  marked  in 
the  different  establishments  where  tobacco  is  more 
extensively  used." 

Dr.  Constan  gives  statistics  with  regard  to  the 
grammar  schools  of  Douai,  St.  Quentin,  and  Cham- 
bery,  the  primary  and  the  higher  normal  schools  of 
Douai,  with  the  military  school  at  the  same  place, 
and  also  that  at  Saumur.  The  general  results  in 
all  these  schools  are  substantially  the  same  as  those 
in  the  Polytechnic  School  at  Paris.  Still  more 
striking  results  are  given  as  to  the  Naval  School  at 


PHYSICAL    AND    INTELLECTUAL    VIEW.  37 

Brest,  where  the  students  were  allowed  to  smoke 
half  an  hour  every  morning  and  evening.  After 
one  year's  study,  eight  smokers  so  fell  in  their 
rank  that  they  M  lost  between  them  one  hundred 
and  twenty-three  places." 

Dr.  Constan  thus  concludes  his  article  :  "  The 
depressing  action  of  tobacco  on  the  intellectual 
development  is,  therefore,  beyond  question.  Its 
influence  clogs  all  the  intellectual  faculties,  and 
especially  the  memory.  It  is  greater  in  propor- 
tion to  the  youth  of  the  individual  and  the  facili- 
ties allowed  him  for  smoking." 

It  having  been  thus  clearly  established  that  the 
students  who  do  not  smoke  outrank  those  who  do, 
and  that  the  scholarship  of  the  smokers  steadily 
deteriorates  as  the  smoking  continues,  we  are  not 
surprised  to  learn  that  the  Minister  of  Public  In- 
struction issued  a  circular  to  the  various  teachers 
in  all  the  schools  of  every  grade,  forbidding  tobacco 
as  injurious  to  physical  and  intellectual  develop- 
ment. Indeed,  so  much  anxiety  is  felt  concerning 
the  decreasing  stature  of  the  French  —  some  of 
the  most  eminent  scientists  ascribing  it  to  tobacco 
—  that  the  question  of  prohibiting  this  drug  to  all 
classes  of  children  and  youth  is  under  considera- 
tion. 

It  is  pleasant  to  state  that  the  Council  of  Berne 
in  Switzerland  has  issued  such  a  prohibition  to  boys 
under  fifteen. 

A  report  by  the  Medical  Department  of  the  Uni- 
ted States  Naval  Academy  at  Annapolis,  Md.,  enu- 


4.2037.1 


38  TOBACCO. 

merates  the  following  as  the  result  of  the  use  of 
tobacco  in  the  school :  — 

"  Functional  derangement  of  the  digestive,  cir- 

culatory,  and  nervous  systems,  manifesting  them- 
selves in  the  form  of  headache,  confusion  of  intel- 
lect, loss  of  memory,  impaired  power  of  attention, 
lassitude,  indisposition  to  muscular  effort,  nausea, 
want  of  appetite,  dyspepsia,  palpitation,  trernu- 
lousness,  disturbed  sleep,  impaired  vision,  etc., 
any  one  of  which  materially  lessens  the  capacity 
for  study  and  application. 

"The  Board  are  of  opinion,  therefore,  that  the 
regulations  against  the  use  of  tobacco  in  any  form 
cannot  be  too  stringent." 

The  New  York  Times  rebukes  Commodore  Par- 
ker for  allowing  naval  students  to  chew  and  smoke, 
notwithstanding  the  expressed  opinion  of  the 
Board  ;  charging  that  it  was  done  "  with  an  impress 
of  ignorance  not  creditable  to  the  commanding  offi- 
cer." It  goes  on  to  sav  :  "  The  boy  who  smokes 
cigars  or  chews  tobacco  poisons  himself,  and  the 
teacher  who  does  not  know  this  is  not  fit  to  be 
trusted  writh  the  charge  and  government  of  boys. 
He  who  permissively  encourages  boys  to  smoke  or 
chew  is  a  corrupter  of  youth." 

Justice  to  Commodore  Parker,  however,  requires 
the  admission  that  he  conferred  with  a  prominent 
physician,  claiming  that  it  was  almost  impossible 
effectually  to  prohibit  the  practice,  and  concluding 
that,  on  the  whole,  it  was  better  to  allow  the  bo}'s  to 
smoke  under  regulations  than  to  punish  them  con- 
stantly for  violation  of  rules. 


PHYSICAL   AND   INTELLECTUAL   VIEW.  39 

The  first  general  order  of  the  superintendent 
succeeding  Commodore  Parker  forbade  the  use  of 
tobacco  in  every  form.  Unfortunately,  however, 
the  habit  is  such  a  tyrant  that,  "in  spite  of  the  sys- 
tem of  daily  inspection,  strict  bounds,  military  pun- 
ishment, and  the  fact  that  all  supplies  are  bought 
from  the  Post  Commissary,  it  is  not  entirely  sup- 
pressed." Such  is  the  testimony  of  a  graduate, 
now  a  professor  in  one  of  our  colleges. 

The  classes  in  Yale  College  are  graded  accord- 
ing to  their  scholarship,  the  best  scholars  being  in 
the  first  division,  and  the  poorest  in  the  fourth. 
From  the  Yale  Courant  we  learn  that  in  the  first 
division  only  twenty-five  per  cent  use  tobacco  ;  in 
the  second,  forty-eight ;  in  the  third,  seventy,  and 
in  the  lowest,  eighty-five. 

It  is  asserted  that  during  the  last  fifty  years  no 
devotee  of  the  weed  has  graduated  from  Harvard 
at  the  head  of  his  class,  although  above  eighty- 
three  per  cent  of  the  students  are  addicted  to 
its  use. 

We  also  learn  that  in  Oxford  and  Cambridge, 
England,  nine  tenths  of  the  first-class  men  are  non- 
smokers. 

It  is  humiliating  to  state  that  at  Amherst  College 
the  average  number  of  tobacco-users  anions:  the 
students  for  the  last  fourteen  years  has  been  nearly 
twenty-nine  per  cent,  while  in  one  of  the  gradu- 
ating classes  at  Princeton  it  wras  fifty  per  cent. 

In  addressing  the  Graduating  law  class  of  the 
Wisconsin  State  University,  ex-Senator  Doolittle 
remarked  :  — 


40  TOBACCO. 

ff  I  verily  believe  that  the  mental  force,  power  of 
labor,  and  endurance  of  our  profession  is  decreased 
at  least  twenty-five  per  cent  by  the  use  of  tobacco. 
Its  poisonous  and  narcotic  effects  reduce  the  power 
of  the  vital  organs  and  tend  to  paralyze  them, 
while  the  useless  consumption  of  time  and  money 
takes  away  twenty-five  per  cent  of  the  working 
hours,  if  it  does  not  consume  the  same  amount  of 
the  earnings." 

With  very  few  exceptions,  medical  and  scientific 
men  are  in  substantial  agreement  as  to  the  effect 
of  tobacco  on  the  intellect ;  indeed,  I  have  yet  to 
hear  of  the  first  one  that  has  expressed  himself  at 
all  on  the  subject  who  is  not  explicit  in  his  decla- 
ration of  its  injurious  influence  on  the  physical  and 
mental  powers  of  the  young. 

Prof.  Lizars  of  Edinburgh  enumerates  a  fearful 
catalogue  of  diseases  which  he  proves  to  be  the 
result  of  tobacco,  adding:  f'It  is  painful  to  con- 
template how  many  promising  youths  must  be 
stunted  in  their  growth  and  enfeebled  in  their 
minds  before  they  arrive  at  manhood." 

What  an  advance  in  intellectual  and  moral  power 
should  we  behold  if  our  young  men  could  be  in- 
duced to  follow  the  example  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton, 
who  refused  to  smoke  "  because  he  would  make  no 
necessities  for  himself;  "  a  sentiment  worthy  to  be 
engraved  over  the  doors  of  every  college  and  school- 
house  in  the  land.  Dr.  Depierris,  a  French  phy- 
sician, in  his  excellent  treatise  on  tobacco,  ex- 
claims, "How  sad  it  is  to  behold  so  manv  fine  in- 


PHYSICAL   AND   INTELLECTUAL   VIEW.  41 

tellects,  well  cultivated,  full  of  vitality,  and  striv- 
ing with  enthusiasm  towards  the  heights  of  human 
knowledge,  withered  in  the  barrenness  of  narcot- 
ism, and  sinking  into  premature  death." 

Wrote  President  Nott  of  Union  College  :  "  The 
lives  of  some  and  the  health  of  many  have  been 
destroyed  by  persisting,  in  despite  of  counsels,  in 
the  use  of  this  poisonous  narcotic,  which,  next  to 
intoxicating  liquors,  is,  in  my  opinion,  more  de- 
structive to  the  health  of  the  youth  in  our  country 
than  any  other  agent." 

A  prominent  physician  testifies  :  "  I  never  ob- 
served such  pallid  faces  and  so  many  marks  of 
declining  health,  nor  ever  knew  so  many  hectical 
habits  and  consumptive  affections  as  of  late  years ; 
and  I  trace  this  alarming  inroad  on  young  consti- 
tutions principally  to  the  pernicious  custom  of 
smoking  cigars." 

Even  the  organ  of  the  tobacco  trade  is  forced 
to  admit  that  "  few  things  could  be  more  pernicious 
for  boys,  growing  youths,  and  persons  of  unformed 
constitution  than  the  use  of  tobacco  in  any  of  its 
forms,"  —  a  truly  significant  confession. 

In  Germany  the  mischief  done  to  growing  boys 
has  been  found  so  £i*eat  that  the  government  has 
ordered  the  police  to  forbid  lads  under  sixteen 
from  smoking  in  the  street.  The  Swiss  canton  of 
Schaffhausen  has  also  issued  a  law  prohibiting  boys 
under  fifteen  from  using  tobacco,  either  on  the 
streets  or  at  home.  On  our  streets  we  behold  a 
vast  and  ever-increasing  number  of  young  Ameri- 


42  TOBACCO. 

cans  who  evidently  consider  smoking  essential  to 
manliness.  And,  alas,  our  police  have  no  orders 
to  forbid  it. 

For  a  gleam  of  dawning  light,  however,  we  will 
thank  God  and  take  courage.  >Ve  catch  this  ffleam 
in  an  act  of  the  Xew  Jersey  legislature  on  this  sub- 
ject, entitled  K  An  act  prohibiting  the  sale  of  ciga- 
rettes or  tobacco  in  any  of  its  forms  to  minors." 
And  now  "  every  person  who  sells  the  narcotic  in 
any  form  to  a  boy  or  girl  under  sixteen  years  of 
age  is  liable  to  a  penalty  of  twenty  dollars  for  each 
and  every  offence." 

HARD    BREAKIXG-IX. 

How  emphatically  nature  protests  against  this 
alien,  almost  every  tobacco-user  can  testify.  I 
give  but  a  single  instance. 

In  a  neighborhood  of  smoking  boys,  Dio  Lewis 
made  an  experiment  on  a  lad  who  had  never  used 
the  weed,  giving  him  a  pill  of  plug-tobacco  to 
chew.  Instantly,  before  he  had  swallowed  a  par- 
ticle, he  grew  fearfully  sick,  became  pale  as  death, 
while  a  cold  swent  crept  over  him,  and  soon,  in 
the  midst  of  violent  retchings,  he  had  to  be  carried 
into  the  open  air. 

Yet  what  pains  are  taken  and  what  obstacles 
conquered  in  forming  the  habit  !  A  lady  met  on 
the  street  a  three-year-old  with  a  black  stick  in 
his  mouth.  She  begged  him  to  throw  it  away, 
promising  him  a  nice  present  if  he  would  ;  but 
he   held  on  to  his  stick,  asserting  that  he  "liked 


PHYSICAL    AXD    INTELLECTUAL    VIEW.  43 

smoking  and  meant  to  smoke  himself  when  big 
enough." 

Boys  sometimes  break  themselves  into  this  vice 
by  rolling  up  tea  or  ground  coffee  in  papers,  and 
smoking  them  as  cigarettes. 

Neal  Dow  graphically  describes  the  early  pro- 
cesses :  "  At  the  very  first  the  use  of  tobacco  is 
a  dreadful  disgust.  It  is  even  worse  than  this. 
It  inflicts  upon  its  future  victim  a  nausea,  a  retch- 
ing, a  vomiting,  a  headache,  to  which  the  horrors 
of  seasickness  are  not  to  be  compared.  There 
ib  the  blue  upper  lip,  the  livid,  ghastly  hue  of  the 
face,  the  eye  like  that  of  a  dead  fish,  the  limbs 
limp  and  powerless,  a  violent  and  painful  vomiting, 
every  symptom  of  death,  which  it  would  soon  be 
in  reality  if  the  unutterable  horror  of  the  suffering 
did  not  compel  the  poor  fool  to  postpone  the  at- 
tempt to  become  a  man  in  that  way.  Here  endeth 
the  first  lesson.  The  silly  youth  resolves  always 
that  he  will  never  touch  tobacco  again,  and  holds 
to  his  purpose  until  he  has  entirely  recovered 
from  the  effects  of  the  first  lesson.  Then  he  sees 
other  youngsters  like  himself  who  have  succeeded 
in  conquering  their  disgust  at  tobacco.  They  have 
done  it.  AVhy  not  he?  They  laugh  at  him  as 
white-livered  ;  they  assure  him  that  the  worst  of  it 
will  be  over  in  a  few  days,  or,  at  most,  in  a  few 
weeks.  They  strut  through  the  streets  or  in 
other  public  places  so  grandly ;  they  have  such  a 
manly  way  with  them  ;  there  is  such  a  grace  in 
their  style  of  holding  the  cigar  between  finger  and 


44  TOBACCO. 

thumb,  and  striking  off  the  ashes  with  the  little 
linger.  "When  they  put  the  cigar  into  their  mouths 
again,  it  is  with  such  a  nourish,  and  their  heads 
are  thrown  back,  a  little  on  one  side,  with  so 
much  self-consciousness,  their  eyes  at  the  same 
moment  cast  slily  right  and  left,  to  see  who  ob- 
serves  and  admires  them !  Ah !  this  is  quite 
irresistible,  and  our  poor,  foolish  youngster  goes 
off  behind  the  barn,  or  into  some  other  out-of-the- 
way  place,  and  takes  the  second  lesson.  All  this 
is  carefully  concealed  from  the  parents,  so  ihe 
tobacco-pupil  must  go  to  bed  before  supper,  under 
pretence  of  headache.  Pretence?  It  is  no  sham. 
He  has  a  racking  and  splitting  headache,  with  the 
return  of  dreadful  nausea.  In  a  few  Aveeks,  more 
or  less,  our  youngster  has  learned  to  smoke  or 
chew,  as  the  case  may  be." 

All  this  painstaking  and  all  this  suffering  vol- 
untarily endured  to  make  himself  the  slave  of  a 
terrible  tyrant !  f'He  little  knows  that  a  god  more 
cunning  than  all  the  heathen  divinities  put  together 
has  bound  him  in  his  spell,  and  that  he  is  in  for  a 
whole  life  of  unspeakable  abomination-."* 

CIGARETTES. 

Something  should  be  said  as  to  cigarette-smok- 
ing, which  is  becoming  so  prevalent,  and  which  is 
thought  by  many  to  be  quite  harmless.  A  physi- 
cian, who  had  strong  suspicions  on  the  subject,  for 
his  own  satisfaction  had  a  cigarette  analyzed.  The 
tobacco  was  found  to  be  strongly  impregnated  with 


PHYSICAL    AND    INTELLECTUAL    VIEW.  45 

opium,  while  the  wrapper,  warranted  to  be  rice- 
paper,  proved  to  be  common  paper  whitened  with 
arsenic.  Thus  the  cigarette  subtlety  combines  a 
threefold  deadly  bane,  proving  in  the  end,  per- 
chance, as  fatal  to  the  unwary  as  the  poisoned 
garment  of  Nessus  to  the  unsuspecting  Hercules. 

A  chemist  in  New  York  city,  who  also  had  his 
own  suspicions,  purchased  from  prominent  dealers 
a  dozen  packages  of  the  highest-priced  cigarettes. 
These  he  sent  for  analysis  to  an  eminent  chemist 
in  another  State,  and  was  astounded  by  his  report 
of  the  quantity  of  opium  found  in  these  standard 
brands. 

Dr.  Lewis  A.  Sayre  pronounces  cigarettes  to  be 
worse  for  boys  than  pipes  or  cigars,  and  paper 
cigarettes  to  be  worse  than  tobacco  cigarettes, 
perhaps  because  the  paper  absorbs  more  of  the 
nicotine  ;  that  they  lead  to  a  nervous  trembling  of 
the  hands,  and,  if  used  excessively,  affect  the 
memory. 

Dr.  Hammond  bears  testimony  to  "  the  ill  effects 
of  cigarettes  in  the  production  of  facial  neuralgia, 
insomnia,  nervous  dyspepsia,  sciatica,  and  an  in- 
disposition to  mental  exertion." 

In  a  city  school  a  bright  lad  of  thirteen  became 
dull  and  fitful,  and  troubled  with  nervous  twitch- 
ings.  His  condition  at  length  compelling  him  to 
be  withdrawn  from  his  studies,  he  was  found  to  be 
a  smoker  of  cigarettes.  When  asked  why  he  did 
not  give  them  up,  he  replied  with  tears  that  he 
had  often  tried  to  do  so,  but  could  not. 


46  TOBACCO. 

The  following  is  from  a  public  journal :  "  Park- 
ham  Adams,  aged  fourteen,  a  student  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Tennessee,  is  dying.  He  smoked  forty 
cigarettes,  and  inhaled  the  smoke  on  a  wager." 

A  young  man  exhibited  symptoms  of  heart- 
disease,  the  pulsations  sometimes  almost  ceasing, 
and  again  so  accelerated  that  he  could  scarcely 
catch  his  breath,  and  seemed  on  the  point  of 
dying.  On  consulting  a  doctor,  he  was  told 
that  all  these  symptoms  came  from  the  use  of 
cigarettes,  and  on  banishing  them  his  health  was 
soon  restored. 

Sa}'s  an  eminent  doctor  :  "We  look  upon  the  ciga- 
rette as  a  leading  demoralization  of  the  last  twenty- 
five  years." 

From  the  Philadelphia  Times  we  learn  that 
several  leading  physicians  in  that  city  "  unani- 
mously condemn  cigarette-smoking  as  one  of  the 
vilest  and  most  destructive  evils  that  ever  befell 
the  youth  of  any  country ; "  declaring  that  K  its 
direct  tendency  is  a  deterioration  of  the  race." 
One  of  these  physicians  affirms  that  within  a  single 
week  he  had  two  patients  who  had  been  made  blind 
by  cigarettes,  while  he  knew  several  other  cases 
of  the  same  kind. 

There  are  in  the  city  of  Xew  York  a  good  many 
tf  cigar-butt  grubbers,"  as  they  are  termed,  that  is, 
boys  and  girls  who  scour  the  streets  for  stumps 
and  half-burnt  cigars,  which  are  dried  and  then 
sold  to  be  used  in  making  cigarettes.  A  religions 
weekty  of  that  city  is  responsible  for  the  following 


PHYSICAL    AND    INTELLECTUAL    VIEW.  47 

account :  A  ragged  eight-year-old  Italian  boy, 
bareheaded  and  barefooted,  was  brought  before 
one  of  the  city  justices  on  the  charge  of  vagrancy. 
The  officer  who  arrested  him  stated  that  he  had 
found  the  boy  picking  up  cigar  stumps  from  the 
streets  and  gutters,  showing  the  justice  a  basket 
half  full  of  such  stumps,  water-soaked  and  cov- 
ered with  mud.  "What  do  you  do  with  these?" 
asked  his  Honor.  "  I  sell  them  to  a  man  for  ten 
cents  a  pound,  and  they  are  used  for  making  ciga- 
rettes." 

The  statements  of  the  representative  of  a  large 
Southern  tobacco  house,  given  on  the  authority  of 
the  New  York  Tribune,  will  not  be  questioned. 
He  asserts  that  "the  extent  to  which  drugs  are 
used  in  cigarettes  is  appalling,"  and  that  "Havana 
flavoring"  is  sold  everywhere  and  by  the  thousand 
barrels.  This  is  prepared  from  the  tonka-bean, 
which  contains  a  deadly  poison.  Cigarette  wrap- 
pers are  in  some  cases  made  from  the  filthy  scrap- 
ings of  rag-pickers,  arsenic  being  often  used  in 
the  bleaching  process,  while  combustion  develops 
the  oil  of  creosote. 

Tobacconists  report  that  cigarettes  are  coming 
to  overshadow  all  other  branches  of  the  business ; 
and  it  is  stated  officially  that  the  revenue  of  our 
government  has  gained  by  several  millions  from 
their  increased  use.  As  helping  to  account  for 
this  increase,  we  also  learn  that  "ladies,  in  grow- 
ing numbers,  habitually  use  cigarettes." 

A  teacher  of  long  experience  remarks  :  "I  think 


48  TOBACCO. 

that  at  least  seven  out  of  every  ten  boys  smoke  by 
the  time  they  are  fourteen  years  old." 

On  a  winter's  day  may  be  seen  skating  on  the 
lake  in  Central  Park,  New  York,  thousands  of 
children,  girls  as  well  as  boys,  most  of  them  puff- 
ing cigarettes  bought  at  a  restaurant  close  by  for 
a  penny  apiece.  Indeed,  one  can  hardly  walk  the 
streets  without  meeting  small  boys  with  discarded 
stumps  of  cigars  or  cigarettes  in  their  mouths.  No 
wonder  that  Dr.  Rush  should  have  exclaimed : 
ff  One  cannot  witness  this  sight  without  anticipating 
such  a  depreciation  of  our  posterity  in  health  and 
character  as  can  scarcely  be  contemplated  without 
pain  and  horror." 

TOBACCO    AND   DRINKING. 

It  is  tobacco  in  some  form  which  perhaps  more 
than  any  other  cause  leads  to  the  dram-shop.  An 
English  physician  states  that  he  examined  the 
breath  of  thirty  smoking  boys  between  the  ages 
of  nine  and  fifteen.  In  twenty-two  of  them  he 
found  various  disorders  of  a  serious  nature,  and 
ff  more  or  less  marked  taste  for  strong  drink" 
a  taste  generated  by  tobacco.  His  prescriptions 
had  little  effect  till  smoking  was  given  up,  when 
health  returned.  It  is  also  said  that  when  smok- 
ing was  abandoned  the  boys  recovered.  These 
facts  are  stated  on  the  authority  of  the  British 
Medical  Journal. 

A  French  physician,  who  had  studied  the  effects 
of  smoking  on  thirty-eight  boys  between  nine  and 


PHYSICAL    AND    INTELLECTUAL    VIEW.  49 

fifteen,  gives  as  the  result  that  twenty-seven  pre- 
sented marked  symptoms  of  nicotine  poisoning ; 
twenty-three,  serious  derangement  of  the  intellec- 
tual faculties,  and  a  strong  appetite  for  alcoholic 
drinks;  three,  heart  disease;  eight,  decided  de- 
terioration of  the  blood;  twelve,  frequent  nose- 
bleed; ten,  disturbed  sleep;  and  four,  ulceration 
of  the  mouth  in  its  mucous  membrane. 

Says  Decaisne,  an  eminent  Paris  doctor  :  "Among 
children  from  nine  to  fifteen  who  were  examined, 
smoking  undoubtedly  caused  palpitation,  intermit- 
tent pulse,  and  chloro-anaemia.  Besides  this,  the 
children  showed  impaired  intelligence,  became  lazy 
and  stupid,  and  were  disposed  to  take  alcoholic 
stimulants.'''' 

Even  the  very  name  has  by  some  one  been 
ingeniously  traced  to  the  god  of  drunkenness, 
To)  BaxxM'  Indeed,  M  so  inseparable  an  attendant  is 
drinking  on  smoking,"  says  Adam  Clarke,  "that  in 
some  places  the  same  word  expresses  both  acts. 
Thus, peend,  in  the  Bengalee  language,  signifies  to 
drink  and  to  smoke." 

Dr.  Rush  affirms  that  "  Smoking  and  chewing  to- 
bacco,  by  rendering  water  and  other  simple  liquids 
insipid  to  the  taste,  dispose  very  much  to  the 
stronger  stimulus  of  ardent  spirits ;  hence,  the 
practice  of  smoking  cigars  has  been  followed  by 
the  use  of  brandy  and  water  as  a  common  drink." 

The  following  is  from  a  brief  treatise  on  Nar- 
cotics :  — 

"  When   introduced  into   the   system   in    small 


50  TOBACCO. 

quantities,  by  smoking,  chewing,  or  snuffing,  to- 
bacco acts  as  a  narcotic,  and  produces,  for  the 
time,  a  calm  feeling  of  mind  and  body,  a  state  of 
mild  stupor  and  repose.  This  condition  changes 
to  one  of  nervous  restlessness  and  a  general  feeling" 
of  muscular  weakness  when  its  habitual  use  is 
temporarily  interrupted.  The  body  and  mind  feel 
in  need  of  stimulation,  and  there  is  great  danger 
that  a  resort  to  alcohol  may  be  had.  The  use  of 
alcohol  is  frequently  induced  by  that  of  tobacco." 

Out  of  six  hundred  in  the  State  prison  at  Au- 
burn, Xew  York,  sent  there  for  crimes  committed 
through  strong  drink,  live  hundred  testified  that 
it  was  tobacco  which  led  them  to  intemperance. 

Dr.  Logee,  of  Oxford,  Ohio,  relates  that  he  once 
heard  Mr.  Trask  offer  fifty  dollars  to  any  intemper- 
ate man  who  had  not  been  a  tobacco-user :  and 
that  he  himself  has  frequently  made  the  offer  of 
fifty  or  a  hundred  dollars  to  any  hard  drinker  who 
would  prove  that  he  had  never  been  a  smoker  or 
a  chewer.  Xot  a  man,  however,  has  ever  claimed 
the  money. 

"  Show  me  a  drunkard  that  does  n't  use  tobacco," 
said  Horace  Greeley,  K  and  I  will  show  you  a  white 
blackbird." 

George  Trask  pronounces  the  weed  M  Satan's 
fuel  for  the  drinking  appetites." 

"  The  professors  in  the  University  and  High 
School  at  Ann  Arbor,  Michigan,  who  have  had  a 
long  experience  among  thousands  of  young  men, 
regard  tobacco  as  having  a  worse  effect  than  even 


PHYSICAL    AND    INTELLECTUAL    VIEW.  51 

liquor,  affirming  that  more  young  men  break  down 
in  body  and  mind  and  finally  go  astray  as  a  result 
of  smoking  than  of  drinking,  while  the  former 
often  leads  to  the  latter."  In  this  view  concur 
Dr.  Parker,  Dr.  Rush,  and  a  multitude  of  medical 
men. 

Dr.  Cowan  affirms  that  "  the  exceptions  are  very 
rare,  when  a  user  of  tobacco  in  any  of  its  forms 
is  not  ultimately  led  to  use  alcoholic  liquors  ;  and 
that,  next  to  transmitted  tendencies,  the  use  of 
tobacco  is  the  great  cause  of  both  moderate  and 
excessive  alcoholic  drinking." 

MANUFACTURE    OF    CHEWING-TOBACCO. 

For  the  following  account  I  am  indebted  to  a 
Quaker  friend,  David  Tatum,  of  Cleveland,  Ohio, 
who  visited  some  of  the  largest  establishments  in 
Virginia. 

*  When  the  tobacco  is  brought  into  the  factory 
and  carefully  sorted,  it  is  dipped  in  a  solution  of 
licorice  and  sugar,  and  passed  between  rollers 
which  press  it  through  the  leaves,  while  the  sur- 
plus juice  runs  back  into  the  solution  in  which  it 
was  dipped.  It  is  then  dried :  after  which  it  is 
put  into  boxes  about  four  feet  long,  and  two  deep, 
each  layer  of  leaves  being  dusted  with  powdered 
licorice  and  thoroughly  sprinkled  with  rum  till  the 
box  is  filled,  then  it  is  covered,  and  allowed  to  re- 
main a  few  days  until  it  becomes  well  soaked  with 
the  licorice  and  rum,  and  ready  to  work  up  for 
market." 


52  TOBACCO. 


CIGAB-MAKING. 

The  New  York  Tribune  informs  us  that  five 
eighths  of  the  cigars  sold  in  the  metropolis  are 
made  in  east-side  tenements  by  Bohemian  families, 
the  work  being  done  in  the  room  where  they  eat 
and  sleep.  The  tobacco,  wet  and  spread  on  the 
floor,  is  trodden  down  by  the  family  while  about 
their  domestic  employment.  In  the  morning, 
damp  and  dirty,  it  is  stripped  from  the  stems  by 
the  children,  the  women  making  the  fillers,  and  the 
men  rolling  and  finishing  at  the  rate  of  seven  hun- 
dred a  day.  A  choice  foreign  brand  is  affixed,  and 
they  are  ready  to  go  forth  on  their  errand  of  de- 
struction. Day  and  night  these  children  exist  — 
not  live  —  in  this  dreadful  atmosphere.  Will  not 
the  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Chil- 
dren interfere  in  their  behalf  ? 

A  German  smoker  in  New  York,  while  using  a 
razor,  slightly  cut  his  lip.  In  a  few  days  the 
wound  assumed  the  appearance  of  an  ulcer,  which 
the  medical  attendant  knew  to  be  scrofulous.  The 
whole  lower  lip  became  affected  with  a  repulsive 
outgrowth,  while  the  gums  were  greatly  swollen, 
and  the  teeth  loose,  ready  to  drop  out.  Learning 
where  the  German  purchased  his  cigars,  the  doctor 
called  at  the  tenement.  The  mystery  was  solved. 
The  man  was  finishing,  "with  a  lick  and  a  stick" 
a  bundle  of  fresh  leaves,  while  on  his  lip  was  a 
scrofulous  sore.  His  son,  too,  working  by  his  side, 
had  a  similar  sore.       Nor  was  this    instance   ex- 


PHYSICAL    AND    INTELLECTUAL    VIEW.  53 

ceptional,  the  doctor  stating  that  such  cases  are  of 
frequent  occurrence. 

In  the  Bellevue  Hospital  there  were  recently 
fifty  patients  suffering  from  one  of  the  most  fearful 
and  incurable  of  maladies,  contracted  from  cigars 
manufactured  in  tenement  houses,  by  diseased 
persons,  the  finishing  touch  being  given  by  the 
teeth  and  tongue.  Among  the  physicians  who 
have  traced  several  similar  cases  to  this  source 
may  be  named  Dr.  L.  Duncan  Bulkley,  of  New 
York. 

Let  the  sons  of  Esculapius  who  recommend 
cigars  for  their  tranquillizing  influence  enlighten 
their  patients  with  the  fact  that,  at  one  time,  just 
after  thousands  of  cigars  had  been  turned  loose 
upon  the  world,  their  makers  were  discovered  to  be 
pitted  with  the  small-pox. 

We  learn  from  the  public  journals  that  in  San 
Francisco  a  hundred  and  ninety-five  cases  of  lep- 
rosy have  been  traced  by  the  physicians  of  that 
city  to  the  smoking  of  cigarettes  manufactured  by 
Chinese  lepers. 

Mr.  K.  L.  Carpenter:  "It  is  stated  that  an  im- 
mense quantity  of  cheap  European  tobacco  is 
shipped  to  Cuba,  to  be  made  up  and  exported  as 
Havana  cigars.  The  Act  of  Parliament  against  the 
adulteration  of  tobacco  informs  us  of  various  nox- 
ious articles  used  by  unscrupulous  manufacturers. 
Some,  however,  are  comparatively  innocent,  — 
such  as  sawdust,  peat,  and  seaweed,  —  so  that  the 
workman's  bad  tobacco  may  not  be  as  poisonous  as 


54  TOBACCO. 

bis  neighbor's  best  Virginia.  When  I  was  in  Balti- 
more  I  went  into  the  great  tobacco  warehouses ;  a 
pig  was  wandering  about,  and  seemed  quite  at  home 
there  ;  the  leaves  were  being  pulled  by  unwashed 
negroes  without  pocket-handkerchiefs.  But  those 
who  do  not  object  to  poison  cannot  be  expected  to 
mind  dirt." 

The  following  list  of  the  various  articles  used  in 
flavoring  tobacco  was  procured  from  the  manufac- 
turers :  — 

Sugar,  honey,  orange  peel,  lemon  peel,  mace, 
cloves,  spices  of  all  kinds,  vanilla,  licorice,  va- 
lerian, tonka-bean,  opiates,  laudanum,  Spanish 
wine,  Santa  Cruz  rum,  liquor  of  all  sorts. 

When  opiates  are  used,  a  solution  is  sprinkled 
on  the  tobacco  before  manufacturing.  Spices  are 
sprinkled  on  the  tops  of  the  cigars  after  packing, 
to  give  a  pleasant  odor  to  the  box,  and  to  destroy 
any  rank  flavor  from  poor  tobacco. 

It  is  asserted  that  a  manufactory  in  the  city  of 
Syracuse  makes  a  favorite  and  increasingly  pop- 
ular brand  of  cigars  by  soaking  the  tobacco  leaves 
in  opium.  Even  smokers  testify  that  there  is  no 
doubt  on  this  point. 

PROPERTIES  AND  EFFECTS  OF  TOBACCO. 

In  a  treatise  on  the  injurious  effects  of  tobacco, 
even  when  used  moderately,  Dr.  Grimshaw,  in 
order  to  confirm  his  statements,  quotes  freely  from 
some  of  "  the  most  learned  medical  authorities, 
men  who  were  not  emraired  in  a  reform  movement, 


PHYSICAL    AND    INTELLECTUAL    VIEW.  55 

who  were  unconnected  with  any  society,  temper- 
ate or  total  abstinent,  and  were  therefore  mere 
recorders  of  facts,  and  propagators  of  truth." 

Dr.  Harris,  physician  to  the  New  York  city  dis- 
pensary :  "  The  properties  and  effects  of  tobacco 
are  of  a  curiously  mixed  character.  Its  power  or 
property  of  stimulation  is  strangely  interwoven 
with  its  more  important  and  predominating  one  of 
sedation  or  depression.  This  complex  and  double 
action  is  peculiarly  adapted  to  the  work  of  fascin- 
ating and  misleading  those  who  submit  them- 
selves to  its  influence. 

"  It  titillates  the  nerves  and  exhilarates  the  feel- 
ings, while  it  obtunds  and  stupefies  the  sensibility, 
and  partially  suspends  the  process  of  life.  The 
appetite  which  it  creates  is  a  never-ending  gnaw- 
ing that  will  not  be  denied ;  and  under  the  most 
specious  guise  of  absolute  physical  necessity,  it 
hides  its  insatiate  and  cruel  demands.  Its  seda- 
tive influence  acts  as  a  damper  to  the  bustling 
excitability  which  the  nervous  system  acquires 
from  deficient  or  excessive  action  ;  while  at  the 
same  time  it  affords  fresh  and  fascinating  excite- 
ment that  for  a  lon^  time  makes  one  forgetful  0f 
weariness,  and  promises  to  relieve  the  tedium  of 
life.  There  is  no  other  substance  known  that  can 
induce  such  complex  and  various  effects ;  but  the 
idtimate  residts  are  invariably  the  same.  Its  dis- 
astrous influences  upon  the  functions  of  the  ner- 
vous system  and  the  action  of  the  heart  are  felt 
throughout  every  tissue  of  the  body  ;    the  blood 


56  TOBACCO. 

moves  sluggishly,  and  as  it  stagnates  in  delicate 
organs,  foundation  is  laid  for  every  form  of 
disease,  while  at  the  same  time  the  poison  of  the 
drug  is  diffused  through  every  tissue  of  the  living 
frame,  benumbing  and  impairing  all  the  powers  of 
life,  so  that  the  system  is  at  once  more  liable  to 
disease  and  less  able  to  endure  its  consequences 
and  resist  its  power." 

Dr.  Logee :  "  Being  a  narcotic  stimulant  it 
breaks  down  the  nervous  system,  raising  the  user 
above  his  natural  level,  only,  by  inevitable  reac- 
tion, to  depress  him  below  it." 

Dr.  B.  W.  Richardson  :  n  The  extreme  symptoms 
induced  by  tobacco  smoke  are  intensely  severe, 
and  the  idea  that  tobacco  is  a  narcotic  like  opium 
or  chloroform  is  entirely  disproved  by  them.  Its 
action  is  as  an  irritant  upon  the  motor  parts  of 
the  nervous  system,  not  as  a  narcotic  upon  the  sen- 
sational." 

Dr.  Marshal]  Hall :  ff  The  smoker  cannot  escape 
the  poison  of  tobacco.  It  gets  into  his  blood, 
travels  the  whole  round  of  his  system,  interferes 
with  the  heart's  action  and  the  general  circulation, 
and  affects  every  organ  and  fibre  of  the  frame." 

Dr.  J.  C.  Jackson:  "I  have  long  entertained 
the  opinion  that  tobacco  is  really  more  deleterious 
in  its  effects  than  are  alcoholic  drinks.  I  have 
settled  mj'self  thoroughly  in  the  conviction  that  no 
habit  of  the  American  people  is  so  destructive  to 
their  physical  vigor,  and  their  moral  character." 

11  We  are  accused  of  killing  patients  with  calo- 


PHYSICAL   AND  INTELLECTUAL   VIEW.  57 

mel,"  remarks  a  physician  ;  M  but  a  thousand  are 
killed  by  tobacco  to  one  by  calomel." 

Solly,  surgeon  of  St.  Thomas'  Hospital,  Lon- 
don :  "  I  know  of  no  single  vice  which  does  so 
much  harm  as  smoking.  It  soothes  the  excited 
nervous  system  at  the  time  to  render  it  more 
irritable  and  more  feeble  ultimately." 

Dr.  R.  W.  Pease  of  Syracuse :  tf  There  can  be 
but  one  opinion  among  physicians,  and  that  is,  the 
use  of  so  powerful  a  narcotic  stimulant  must  be 
hurtful,  not  only  to  the  nervous  system,  but  es- 
pecially to  the  circulatory  organs,  chiefly  the  heart, 
causing,  first,  functional  disturbance,  and  finally, 
organic  disease  of  that  organ.  In  short,  I  am 
firmly  convinced  that  tobacco  is  doing  more  mis- 
chief to  the  physical  condition  of  our  people  than 
alcohol  in  all  its  forms." 

Dr.  Drysdale :  "  Nicotine  enters  the  body  by 
the  stomach,  the  lungs,  and  the  skin ;  and  its 
effects  are  uniform  by  whatever  gate  it  enters." 

Strong  testimony  on  this  subject  is  presented  by 
Dr.  Pidduck,  physician  to  a  dispensary  in  St. 
Giles.  It  appears  in  the  London  Lancet  for 
1857,  which  embodies  the  results  of  the  investiga- 
tions as  to  the  use  of  tobacco  by  prominent  phy- 
sicians, including  Dr.  Taylor,  the  great  English 
surgeon  and  author.  All  are  agreed  that  it  is  a 
poison  for  both  brain  and  heart,  producing  paraly- 
sis, apoplexy,  and  heart  disease,  and  also  in  the 
conviction  that  it  sows  the  seeds  of  various  other 
maladies. 


58  TOBACCO. 

It  is  estimated  by  German  physicians  that  of 
the  deaths  occurring  in  that  country  among  men 
between  eighteen  and  thirty-five  years  of  age,  one 
half  die  from  the  effects  of  this  drug.  They 
unequivocally  assert  that  r  tobacco  burns  out  the 
blood,  the  teeth,  the  eyes,  and  the  brain." 

Dr.  Wright :  "  I  believe  it  to  be  the  great  antag- 
onist of  the  nervous  system,  especially  in  its  rela- 
tions to  the  organs  of  sense,  of  reproduction,  and 
of  digestion." 

Dr.  Harris  :  K  At  the  New  York  City  dispen- 
sary, more  cases  of  constitutional,  chronic,  and 
functional  diseases  are  treated  than  at  any  other 
institution  in  America,  more  than  fifty  thousand 
patients  being  annually  prescribed  for.  Of  the 
male  adult  patients  affected  by  such  diseases  who 
have  come  under  my  care  at  the  dispensary,  I 
have  found  that  nearly  nine  tenths  of  the  whole 
number  were  habitual  tobacco-mongers.  In  no 
small  proportion  of  these  it  has  been  perfectly 
evident  that  tobacco  had  an  important  influence 
upon  the  cause  and  continuance  of  these  maladies." 

Decaisne  :  "  Tobacco-smoking  often  causes  an 
intermittent  pulse.  Out  of  eighty-one  smokers 
examined,  twenty-three  presented  an  intermittent 
pulse,  independent  of  any  cardiac  lesion.  This 
intermittency  disappeared  when  smoking  was 
abandoned."' 

Blatin  relates  that  "a  young  medical  student, 
after  smoking  a  single  pipe,  fell  into  a  frightful 
state,  the  heart  becoming  nearly  motionless,  the 


PHYSICAL   AND   INTELLECTUAL  VIEW.  59 

chest  constricted,  breathing  painful,  limbs  cor. 
tracted,  pupils  insensible,  one  contracted,  the  other 
dilated.     These  symptoms  lasted  four  days." 

Tyrrell :  "  The  tobacco  habit  is  one  of  those 
pleasant  vices  which  the  just  gods  make  instru- 
ments to  scourge  us,  destroying  the  very  principle 
of  manhood." 

Abernethy :  "  Smoking  stupefies  all  the  senses 
and  all  the  faculties,  by  slow  but  enduring  intoxi- 
cation, into  dull  obliviousness." 

Prof.  Miller,  of  Edinburgh :  "  As  medical  men 
we  know  that  smoking  injures  the  whole  organism, 
and  puts  a  man's  stomach  and  whole  frame  out  of 
order.  The  effects  of  narcotics,  mental  and  bodily, 
I  can  fairly  testify,  are  nothing  but  evil ;  and  I 
stand  in  a  position  of  giving  an  experienced  as 
well  as  an  impartial  observation." 

"In  our  country,"  says  one,  "it  is  no  uncommon 
circumstance  to  hear  of  inquests  on  the  bodies  of 
smokers,  especially  youths,  the  ordinary  verdict 
being  "Died  from  extreme  tobacco-smoking." 
In  a  single  death-certificate  of  a  New  York 
physician,  we  read:  "Four  died  of  poisoning 
from  tobacco." 

"I  have  no  hesitation  in  averring,"  wTrites  one 
of  the  most  able  and  experienced  temperance  ad- 
vocates, "that,  gigantic  as  are  the  evils  arising 
from  the  use  of  strong  drink,  those  of  using 
tobacco  exceed  them." 

Dr.  Twitchell,  of  Keene,  N.  H.,  expresses  sub- 
stantially the  same  opinion. 


60  TOBACCO. 

If  additional  testimony  were  desirable,  a  long 
and  goodly  array  of  medical  names,  both  in  our 
own  country  and  in  Europe,  might  be  cited.  All 
the  medical  schools  as  such,  allopathic,  hydro- 
pathic, homoeopathic,  with  the  various  specialists, 
unite  in  their  testimony  as  to  the  disastrous  effects 
of  tobacco,  whether  for  smoking,  chewing,  or 
snuffing ;  nor  is  this  strange  when  it  is  the  appal- 
ling verdict  of  a  college  of  physicians  that  twenty 
thousand  in  our  own  land  die  annually  from  this 
poison.  The  only  wonder  is  how  any  doctor  can 
fail  to  throw  the  whole  weight  of  his  influence 
against  this  practice. 

EXPERIENCES    OF   LITERARY   MEN. 

A  volume  by  A.  Arthur  Keade,  entitled  w  Study 
and  Stimulants,"  contains  the  experiences  of  many 
literary  men  in  regard  to  stimulants,  From  these 
I  select  but  a  few  cases,  and  such  as  relate  only  to 
tobacco. 

Among  those  who  advocate  its  use  are  Edison, 
Wilkie  Collins,  and  Anthony  Trollope.  The  lat- 
ter, however,  admits  that,  finding  it  was  injuring 
him,  he  gave  it  up  for  two  years,  when  he  resumed 
smoking,  substituting,  however,  for  "three  large 
cigars  daily  three  very  small  ones ;  and  so  far  as  I 
can  tell,"  he  adds,  "without  any  effect." 

Among  the  total  abstainers  on  principle  from 
tobacco,  as  well  as  from  spirits  and  wine,  are  Dr. 
Allibone,  the  Duke  of  Argyle,  Kobert  and  Wil- 
liam Chambers,  George  W.   Childs,  Prof.  Fair- 


PHYSICAL   AND   INTELLECTUAL   VIEW.  61 

bairn,  Cardinal  Newman,  Keshub  Chunder  Sen, 
and  M.  Barthelemy  St.  Hilaire. 

Of  Gladstone  it  is  affirmed  that  he  "detests 
smoking." 

Darwin  :  "  I  have  taken  snuff  all  my  life,  and 
regret  that  I  ever  acquired  the  habit." 

Ernst  Haeckel :  "  I  have  never  smoked." 

Philip  Gilbert  Hamerton :  "  I  shall  certainly 
never  resume  smoking.  I  never  use  any  stimu- 
lants whatever  when  writing,  and  believe  the  use 
of  them  to  be  most  pernicious ;  indeed,  I  have 
seen  terrible  results  from  them.  When  a  writer 
feels  dull,  the  best  stimulant  is  fresh  air." 

W.  D.  Howells  :  "I  never  use  tobacco,  except 
in  a  very  rare,  self-defensive  cigarette,  where  a 
great  many  other  people  are  smoking." 

R  John  Ruskin  entirely  abhors  the  practice  of 
smoking,  his  dislike  of  it  being  mainly  based  on 
the  belief  that  a  cigar  or  pipe  will  often  make  a 
man  content  to  be  idle  for  any  length  of  time." 

Charles  Reade  :  "  I  tried  to  smoke  ^.\e  or  six 
times,  but  it  always  made  me  heavy  and  rather 
sick ;  therefore,  as  it  costs  money,  I  spurned  it. 
I  have  seen  many  people  the  worse  for  it.  I  never 
saw  anybody  perceptibly  the  better  for  it." 

The  case  of  the  distinguished  French  savant, 
the  Abbe*  Moigno,  editor  of  the  Journal  du  Monde, 
is  very  striking.  Temperate  in  his  general  habits, 
he  became  conscious  of  injury  from  his  excessive 
use  of  snuff,  many  times  giving  it  up  only  to 
resume  it  again.     He  was  a  noted  linguist,  know- 


62  TOBACCO. 

ing  by  heart  some  fifteen  hundred  root  words  in 
various  languages;  but,  under  the  influence  of  the 
narcotic,  these  were  all  dropping  from  his  memory. 
He  felt  this  to  be  so  great  a  trial  that  he  finally 
renounced  the  habit.  He  writes :  M  It  was  the 
commencement  of  a  veritable  resurrection  of  health, 
mind,  and  memory,  and  the  army  of  words  that 
had  run  away  has  gradually  returned." 

The  following  item  is  taken  from  another  source. 
Algernon  Charles  Swinburne,  wandering  one  day 
from  room  to  room  at  the  Art  Club,  in  the  vain 
search  for  a  clear  atmosphere  where  he  could  write, 
at  last  exclaimed  in  poetic  indignation :  "  James 
the  First  was  a  knave,  a  tyrant,  a  fool,  a  liar,  a 
coward;  but  I  love  him,  I  worship  him,  because 
he  slit  the  throat  of  that  blackguard  Kaleigh,  who 
invented  this  filthy  smoking." 

MEDICAL   INCONSISTENCIES. 

Of  a  physician  who  is  not  only  indifferent  to 
this  great  evil,  but  who  himself  makes  use  of  the 
drug,  what  shall  be  said?  His  tell-tale  breath  as 
he  bends  over  his  suffering  patient,  the  very  smell 
of  his  garments  to  one  for  whose  recovery  God's 
pure  air  is  a  first  necessity, — what  can  be  urged 
in  his  defence  ?  Said  a  refined  and  highly  intelli- 
gent woman,  "  I  would  never  employ  a  physician 
who  used  tobacco." 

But  whatever  rights  the  doctors  may  claim  so 
far  as  their  own  use  of  the  weed  is  concerned, 
what  plea  can  be  made  for  those  who  prescribe 


PHYSICAL   AND   INTELLECTUAL  VIEW.  63 

this  poison  for  a  patient,  and  thus,  for  a  mere  tem- 
porary soothing  effect,  bring  him  into  a  bondage 
entailing  evils  beyond  computation  to  himself  and 
family?  A  certain  physician  recommended  the 
chewing  of  tobacco  to  a  man  as  the  only  thing  to 
secure  him  against  a  fever  to  which  he  was  ex- 
posed in  the  case  of  one  of  his  family.  But  what 
of  a  woman?  How  about  said  man's  wife  and 
daughter,  who,  from  being  more  constantly  in  the 
sick  room,  were  far  more  exposed?  Were  their 
lives  of  less  value  than  his?  Why  didn't  the 
doctor  prescribe  it  for  them  also? 

I  know  a  man  of  fine  intellect  and  high  moral 
character  who  had  come  to  a  ripe  maturity  without 
touching  the  filthy  weed.  He  is  attacked  with 
whooping  cough.  A  wise  (  ?)  doctor  recommends 
smoking  to  quiet  the  paroxysms  of  the  cough, 
and  himself  brings  and  presents  the  first  cigar  to 
the  patient  —  his  very  best  medical  prescription. 
Does  he  offer  one  to  the  woman,  suffering  from 
similar  paroxysms,  and  with  less  strength  to  bear 
them  ?  And  the  children  with  their  fearful  cou^h- 
ing  fits, —  does  he  bring  a  cigar  for  their  relief? 
The  poor  baby,  too,  who  grows  black  and  all  but 
dies  in  the  struggle  for  breath  !  It  is  too  young 
to  smoke?  Why  not,  then,  teach  the  little  cough- 
ing sister  this  fine  art,  and  let  her  smoke  in  the 
baby's  face?  Does  not  any  doctor  know  that 
under  any  such  ill-omened  spell  the  tender  infant 
would  speedily  pine  away  and  die  ? 

But  what  of  the  husband  and  father  after  his 


64  TOBACCO. 

first  and  second  and  third  cigar?  Why,  grand 
man  though  he  is,  —  a  man,  too,  of  great  strength 
of  character,  —  he  becomes  an  inveterate  smoker. 
And  though,  with  his  fine  constitution,  the  ill 
effects  on  his  health  may  not  at  once  be  obvious, 
yet,  like  many  another  tobacco  user,  he  may  be 
suddenly  stricken  down  with  apoplexy  or  heart 
disease,  when  the  doctors,  perhaps,  will  pro- 
nounce judgment  that  he  died  from  the  effects 
of  smoking. 

Then  who  can  tell  what  injury  this  loving  father 
may  not  have  entailed  on  his  children  by  the  sure, 
retributive  law  of  heredity  ?  And  what  if  his  boys 
aspire  to  a  cigar?  Shall  their  smoking  father  for- 
bid them,  holding  himself  up  in  terrorem? 

A  minister  of  rare  qualities  of  head  and  heart, 
but  of  delicate  organization  and  highly  nervous 
temperament,  who  had  unfortunately  learned  to 
smoke,  consults  his  trusted  physician.  What  a 
grand  opportunity  for  helping  the  man  to  knock  off 
his  fetters !  Does  he  seize  the  occasion?  Why, 
instead,  he  tells  him  that  moderate  smoking,  "just 
a  little,"  will  not  only  not  injure,  but  will  help 
him  —  will  quiet  his  excited  nerves  !  So  the  min- 
ister's wife,  who  knows  he  is  the  very  last  man 
who  ought  to  smoke,  and  who  sees  that  it  is  only 
confirming  his  unfavorable  symptoms,  is  obliged, 
as  she  sees  the  fetters  tiofhteninfi:,  to  hide  her 
anxiety  and  her  sorrow  in  her  own  heart. 

Xow,  how  can  we  account  for  such  a  course  on 
the  part  of  the  accredited  guardians  of  health? 


PHYSICAL   AND   INTELLECTUAL   VIEW.  65 

Sometimes  it  may,  without  doubt,  be  explained 
on  the  ground  of  inconsideration.  A  physician, 
having  recommended  one  of  his  patients  to  smoke, 
gave  as  his  only  reason  that,  as  the  patient  was 
old  and  deaf  and  infirm,  he  thought  smoking  might 
be  a  little  amusement  for  him! 

A  young  clergyman  in  feeble  health  was  directed 
by  his  medical  adviser  to  smoke.  Some  doubt 
being  expressed  on  the  subject,  the  case  was 
referred  to  an  old  physician,  who  indorsed  the 
smoking  prescription.  It  seems  this  wise  old  doc- 
tor, twenty  years  before,  had  recommended  the 
same  thing  to  another  minister.  The  results  had 
proved  so  disastrous  that  his  attendant  felt  con- 
strained to  write  to  the  veteran  physician,  asking 
information  as  to  the  medical  value  of  tobacco, 
which  had  led  to  the  prescriptions.  His  answer 
was :  n  I  have  not  paid  sufficient  attention  to  the 
subject  of  smoking  to  make  my  opinion  of  the 
slightest  value."  How,  then,  did  he  dare  indorse 
such  a  practice  ? 

THE    LATE    DR.    WILLARD   PARKER'S   VIEWS. 

In  reporting  a  lecture  on  Tobacco,  given  to  the 
students  of  Union  Theological  Seminary  by  Dr. 
Willard  Parker,  to  whom  I  have  already  referred, 
the  New  York  Observer  remarks  :  "  Dr.  Parker  is 
a  physician  whose  fame  is  not  bounded  by  the  me- 
tropolis or  the  nation.  There  is  no  higher  author- 
ity than  he  in  the  line  of  his  profession." 

From  this  report,  and  from  other  printed  matter 


66  TOBACCO. 

on  this  subject  by  Dr.  Parker,  the  following  pas- 
sages are  taken  :  — 

"  It  is  now  many  years  since  my  attention  was 
called  to  the  insidious,  but  positively  destructive 
effects  of  tobacco  on  the  human  system.  I  have 
seen  a  great  deal  of  its  influence  upon  those  who 
use  it  and  work  in  it.  Cigar  and  snuff  manufac- 
turers have  come  under  my  care  in  hospitals  and 
in  private  practice ;  and  such  persons  cannot  re- 
cover soon  and  in  a  healthy  manner  from  cases  of 
injury  or  fever.  They  are  more  apt  to  die  in 
epidemics  and  more  prone  to  apoplexy  and  paraly- 
sis. The  same  is  true,  also,  of  those  who  smoke 
or  chew  much." 

w  The  use  of  this  weed  is  particularly  injurious 
to  studious  men  of  sedentary  habits.  The  odor 
infects  their  clothing,  study,  and  books,  so  that 
they  live  and  breathe  in  a  noxious  atmosphere. 
The  poison  is  slow,  but  in  the  second  or  third  de- 
cade its  virus  becomes  manifest.  The  words  of 
the  wise  man,  r  Because  sentence  against  an  evil 
work  is  not  executed  speedily,  therefore  the  heart 
of  the  sons  of  men  is  fully  set  in  them  to  do  evil,' 
are  strikingly  applicable  to  those  who  indulge  in 
this  pernicious  habit.  There  have  died  in  Xew 
York  within  a  few  years  three  excellent  clergy- 
men, all  of  whom  might  now  have  been  alive  had 
they  not  used  tobacco.  The  duty  of  abstaining 
from  the  slow  killing  of  one's  self  by  this  poison  is 
as  clear  as  the  duty  of  not  cutting  one's  throat." 

"  Tobacco  is  doinc:  more  harm  in  the  world  than 


PHYSICAL   AND   INTELLECTUAL   VIEW.  67 

rum.  It  is  destroying  our  race,  and  it  is  sure  to 
destroy  the  farms  producing  it  also,  as  it  has  done 
some  of  the  best  land  in  Virginia." 

ILLUSTRATIONS. 

A  man,  distinguished  for  scholarship,  but,  un- 
fortunately, equally  distinguished  for  inordinate 
smoking,  paid  the  penalty  in  a  manifest  retarding 
of  his  mental  movements  —  his  thoughts  and  words 
coming  so  slowly  as  to  be  painful  to  the  listener. 
This  clogging  of  the  intellect  his  physician  unhesi- 
tatingly attributed  to  tobacco. 

A  smoking  club  of  three  young  men  came  to  its 
end  within  two  years  of  its  formation,  all  its 
members  having  smoked  themselves  to  death. 

A  striking  account,  well  authenticated,  is  given 
concerning  a  man  in  Detroit,  of  fine  constitution  and 
regular  and  temperate  habits,  except  in  the  one  mat- 
ter of  cigars.  For  thirty  years  he  had  smoked  with 
seeming  impunity.  But  the  day  of  reckoning 
came  at  last!  He  complained  one  night  of  feeling 
unwell,  and  from  that  moment  a  gradual  numbness 
stole  over  him.  First  his  sight  left  him,  next  his 
tongue  was  paralyzed ;  then  he  lost  the  power  of 
moving  his  head.  Thus  member  after  member 
was  clutched  and  held  as  in  a  vise,  till  he  lay 
sightless  and  motionless,  helpless  —  alive,  yet 
dead.  One  sense  alone  was  untouched,  — that  of 
hearing  ;  and  he  exhausted  himself  in  frantic  efforts 
to  reply  to  the  questions  put  to  him.  For  a  little 
time  he  rallied,  but  his  constitution,  undermined 


68  TOBACCO. 

by  the  narcotic,  had  lost  all  recuperative  power. 
He  lay  for  a  fortnight,  a  most  pitiable  object,  and 
then  sank  —  as  all  his  doctors  agreed  —  a  victim  of 
tobacco. 

In  speaking  of  Senator  Carpenter,,  the  brilliant 
friend  of  General  Grant,  Eev.  Mr.  Marsh,  who 
has  written  vigorously  on  the  tobacco  habit,  re- 
marks :  "  He  died,  his  system  a  pitiful  wreck, 
when,  as  far  as  years  went,  he  ought  to  have  been 
in  the  prime  of  his  power.  An  acquaintance 
writes  of  him,  'Died  of  smoking  twenty  cigars  a 
day.' " 

Lorenzo  and  Siro  Delmonico,  the  famous  New 
York  caterers,  were  anions  the  innumerable  to- 
bacco  victims.  Of  the  latter,  Dr.  Wood,  who  had 
attended  him  for  a  long  time,  testified,  "I  have 
known  him  to  smoke  as  many  as  a  hundred  cigars 
a  day.  He  was  completely  saturated  with  nico- 
tine, and  the  question  of  his  death  was  only  one  of 
time.  He  used  the  very  strongest  cigars,  made 
expressly  for  him  in  Havana,  and  he  was  perpet- 
ually smoking.  The  disease  this  produced  was 
called  emphysema,  —  a  morbid  enlargement  of  the 
lung  cells,  and  caused  fits  of  coughing  which 
sometimes  nearly  strangled  him.  He  had  been 
many  years  under  medical  treatment,  frequently 
changing  his  physician,  but  never  his  practice, 
although  often  warned  of  its  perils."  From  a 
midnight  revel  Delmonico  went  to  his  house,  and 
the  next  morning  was  found  dead  upon  the  floor. 

A  prominent  and  highly  esteemed  citizen  of  Sy- 


PHYSICAL   AND   INTELLECTUAL  VIEW.  69 

racuse,  N.  Y.,  died  suddenly  of  paralysis  of  the 
heart,  attributed  by  his  family  physician  to  M  the 
too  free  use  of  tobacco."  He  had  repeatedly  been 
warned  against  his  habit  of  excessive  smoking,  and 
he  had  moderated  his  indulgence,  coming  down 
from  twenty  daily  cigars  to  five.  But  he  could 
not  break  his  fetters,  and  he  fell,  conquered  by  the 
destroyer. 

TOBACCO   DISEASES. 

From  an  able  work  entitled  Diseases  of  Modern 
Life,  by  Dr.  Richardson,  an  eminent  English 
physician,  I  copy  the  following  :  — 

"  Smoking  produces  disturbances  in  the  blood, 
causing  undue  fluidity  and  change  in  the  red  cor- 
puscles ;  in  the  stomach  giving  rise  to  debility, 
nausea,  and  in  extreme  cases,  vomiting;  in  the 
mucous  membrane  of  the  mouth,  causing  enlarge- 
ment and  soreness  of  the  tonsils,  smokers'  sore 
throat,  etc.  ;  in  the  heart,  producing  debility  of 
that  organ,  and  irregular  action  ;  in  the  bronchial 
surface  of  the  lungs,  when  that  is  already  irritable, 
sustaining  irritation  and  increasing  cough ;  in  the 
organs  of  se?ise,  causing,  in  the  extreme  degree, 
dilatation  of  the  pupils  of  the  eye,  confusion  of 
vision,  bright  lines,  luminous  or  cobweb  specks, 
and  lonsr  retention  of  images  on  the  retina ;  with 
other  and  analogous  symptoms  affecting  the  ear, 
viz.,  inability  to  define  sounds  clearly,  and  the 
occurrence  of  a  sharp  ringing  sound,  like  a  whistle 
or  a  bell ;  in  the  brain,  impairing  the  activity  of 
that  organ ;  in   the  volitional,  and  in  the  sympa- 


70  TOBACCO. 

thetic  or  organic  nerves,  leading  to  paralysis  in 
them." 

"  This  does  not  leave  very  much  of  a  man,"  re- 
marks Mr.  Marsh,  M  but  his  hair  and  his  bones." 

Justice  requires  the  admission  that  Dr.  Richard- 
son regards  the  diseases  induced  by  this  weed  as 
functional  and  not  organic,  so  that  the  suspension 
of  its  use  not  unfrequently  removes  the  disease. 
But  he  goes  on  to  say,  "  In  the  confirmed  smoker 
there  is  a  constant  functional  disturbance.  .  .  . 
On  the  ground  of  these  functional  disturbances  an 
argument  may  be  used  which  cuts  sharply  because 
it  goes  right  home.  .  .  .  Why  should  a  million 
of  men  be  living  with  stomachs  that  only  partially 
digest,  hearts  that  labor  unnaturally,  and  blood 
that  is  not  fully  oxidized  ?  " 

Concerning  the  alleged  influence  of  tobacco  on 
the  hearing,  Stille*  says  that  it  causes  "  a  buzzing 
and  ringing  in  the  ears,  and  even  hallucinations  of 
this  sense." 

In  his  essay  on  "  The  Effects  of  the  Abuse  of 
Tobacco,"  read  before  the  American  Institute 
of  Homoeopathy,  in  June,  1884,  Dr.  T.  F.  Allen 
writes,  "  Much  less  is  known  or  has  been  reported 
concerning  the  action  of  tobacco  on  the  ear  than 
on  the  eye.  Sufficient,  however,  is  known  to  en- 
able us  to  state  that  two  distinct  affections  are 
produced.  One,  an  impairment  of  the  auditory 
nerve,  recognized  by  a  roaring  sound,  and  di- 
minished acuteness  of  hearing ;  .  .  .  the  other,  a 
chronic  catarrhal,  inflammation  of  the  middle  ear,  as- 


PHYSICAL   AND   INTELLECTUAL  VIEW.  71 

sociated  with  an  angina  of  the  throat.  The  mucous 
membrane  of  the  Eustachian  tube  becomes  swollen, 
and  the  tube  closed ;  the  drum  becomes  red, 
thickened,  and  retracted.  With  these  catarrhal 
symptoms  are  noticed  roaring  in  the  ears." 

Physicians  also  assert  that  the  use  of  tobacco 
tends  to  injure  the  voice,  rendering  it  coarse, 
tremulous,  and  husky.  On  this  point  Dr.  Kussell, 
who,  for  forty  years  was  a  professor  of  Elocution, 
remarks  :  "  As  to  the  effect  of  the  habitual  use  of 
tobacco  on  the  quality  and  character  of  the  voice, 
I  know  it  to  be  injurious  in  proportion  to  the  ex- 
tent to  which  it  is  carried.  Snuff-taking  destroys 
the  natural  sound,  and  the  pure  ring  of  healthy 
human  utterance.  It  deadens  the  voice,  and  by 
impairing  its  clear  resonance,  mars  the  distinctness 
of  articulation.  Smoking  creates  a  reedy,  burning 
sound,  which  hinders  purity  of  tone,  and  renders 
the  voice  more  or  less  grating  to  the  ear.  Chew- 
ing, by  its  exhausting  effect  on  the  salivary  glands, 
causes  the  quality  of  the  voice  to  become  dry, 
hard,  and  bitter." 

Dr.  Newell,  of  Boston :  "  Tobacco  has  eleven 
special  centres  of  action  in  the  human  system,  the 
chief  of  which  are  the  heart,  eyes,  spinal  cord, 
genitalia,  lungs,  and  the  circulation.  I  have  seen 
nicotine  lower  the  circulation  and  lessen  the  res- 
piratory powers ;  wither  or  paralyze  the  motor 
column  of  the  spinal  cord,  produce  atrophy  of  the 
retina  and  blindness.  It  produces  mental  aberra- 
tions, low   spirits,  irresolution,  the   most  dismal 


72  TOBACCO. 

hypochondria  and  insomnia,  and  sometimes,  after 
the  victim  has  retired,  frightful  shocks,  likened  to 
a  discharge  of  electricity.  Impregnate  fresh-drawn 
blood  with  nicotine,  and  at  once  it  acquires  a  dark 
hue,  while  the  microscope  shows  the  red  corpus- 
cles  undergoing  rapid  disintegration,"  a  phenome- 
non which  is  styled  crenation. 

On  this  point,  another  medical  man  states  that, 
where  the  tobacco  habit  has  been  of  long  standing, 
the  ratio  of  degenerated  corpuscles  to  healthy  ones 
is  often  as  one  in  twenty-five  or  thirty,  and  some- 
times comes  to  be  as  one  in  ten.  A  wealthy  ama- 
teur who  had  been  selecting  a  microscope  at  an 
optician's,  left  on  the  slide  a  drop  of  his  own  blood 
wThich  he  had  used  as  a  test.  As  he  was  leaving 
the  office  with  a  cigar  in  his  mouth,  the  professor 
of  microscopy  in  one  of  our  medical  colleges, 
happening  in,  glanced  at  the  slide,  moving  it  to  and 
fro,  and  then  made  a  rapid  computation.  The 
optician  looked  on  with  surprise,  remarking,  "  that 
gentleman  is  one  of  our  best  customers,  he  buys 
more  heavily  than  half  a  dozen  professors."  "  And 
this  is  a  drop  of  his  blood  ?  "  inquired  the  man  of 
science.  The  purveyor  of  lenses  assented.  "  Very 
well,"  replied  the  professor,  "tell  your  best  cus- 
tomer, if  you  can  without  impertinence,  that  unless 
he  stops  smoking  at  once  he  has  not  many  months 
to  live."  But  he  did  not  stop.  A  few  weeks 
later  he  went  to  Europe,  thinking  a  sea  voyage 
might  recruit  his  wasted  energies.  In  a  few  weeks 
more  his  death  was  announced  by  telegraph  from 


PHYSICAL   AND   INTELLECTUAL   VIEW.  73 

Paris,  where  the  doctors  styled  his  disease  a  gen- 
eral breaking  up. 

According  to  good  medical  authority,  there  are 
more  than  fifty  diseases  —  some  say  eighty-seven — 
which  spring  from  tobacco,  or  are  greatly  intensi- 
fied by  its  use.  Among  these  are  paralysis  and 
apoplexy. 

TOBACCO- AMAUROSIS  ;    COLOR-BLINDNESS. 

Stille  maintains  that  smoking  "  renders  the 
vision  weak  and  uncertain,  causing  objects  to 
appear  nebulous,  or  creates  muscat  volitantes  and 
similar  objective  phenomena,"  adding  that  "in 
numerous  instances  it  has  produced  amaurosis." 

Chisholm,  in  his  report  On  the  Poisonous  Effect 
of  Tobacco  on  the  Eyesight,  states  that "  in  the  past 
few  years  he  had  treated  thirty-five  cases  of 
amaurosis,  directly  traceable  to  the  use  of  tobacco, 
by  smoking,  in  every  case  but  one." 

McSherry  :  "  When  the  sight  fails  with  smokers, 
and  no  appreciable  change  of  structure  can  be 
found  in  the  eye,  tobacco-poisoning  may  be  as- 
sumed. The  assumption  is  converted  into  cer- 
tainty by  the  fact  that  appropriate  remedies  fail 
entirely  while  the  habit  of  smoking  is  continued. 
In  rare  cases  the  susceptibility  is  so  great  that  the 
smoking  of  a  single  cigar  a  day  will  produce  it." 

Dr.  Drysdale,  in  Tobacco  and  the  Diseases  it 
Produces :  "  In  one  week  I  saw  in  the  Koyal  Lon- 
don Ophthalmic  Hospital  two  cases  of  tobacco- 
amaurosis  in  young  men  under  thirty.     The  first 


74  TOBACCO. 

had  chewed  continually ;  and  the  other  smoked 
one  ounce  of  shag  tobacco  daily.  Both  were  com- 
pletely and  irretrievably  blind.  Lichel  of  Paris 
found  some  cases  of  blindness  easily  cured  by 
cessation  from  tobacco." 

Dr.  George  Crichett  a  distinguished  London 
oculist,  says  he  is  "  constantly  consulted  for  blind- 
ness occasioned  solely  by  great  smoking." 

Dr.  T.  F.  Allen :  "  We  find  here  the  character- 
istic physiological  action  of  the  drug,  namely,  a 
persistent  contraction  of  the  blood-vessels,  produc- 
ing an  anaemia  of  the  nerve  structure.  This  con- 
traction is  like  a  persistent  cramp,  and  may  pass 
off  on  ceasing  to  use  the  drug;  but  if  it  continue, 
malnutrition,  and  slow  degeneration  of  the  nerves 
is  sure  to  take  place." 

Dr.  Allen  gives  confirmatory  opinions  and  testi- 
monies from  nine  or  ten  eminent  physicians,  while 
he  frankly  admits  that  there  are  some  who  differ 
from  them  as  to  the  influence  of  tobacco. 

Dr.  Perry,  a  highly  educated  physician  of  Col- 
chester, Illinois,  was  an  excessive  smoker  and 
chewer,  sometimes  in  three  days  using  not  far 
from  a  pound  of  plug  tobacco.  As  the  result,  he 
is  totally  blind. 

In  a  medical  journal,  among  other  similar 
instances,  one  is  given  of  a  man  about  forty -two, 
a  smoker  of  many  years,  whose  eyesight  was 
gradually  failing.  After  two  months'  cessation 
from  the  habit,  his  vision  was  restored.  But  the 
ardent  votary  of  the  weed  —  refusing  to  ascribe  his 


PHYSICAL    AND    INTELLECTUAL    VIEW.  75 

difficulty  to  its  true  cause,  because,  forsooth,  he 
had  smoked  so  long  without  any  bad  effects  — 
returned  to  his  idol.  In  a  few  weeks,  however, 
the  recurrence  of  his  trouble  convinced  him, 
though  much  against  his  will,  that  it  was  entirely 
owing  to  tobacco. 

A  distinguished  English  physician  states  that 
"  out  of  thirty-seven  patients  suffering  from 
amaurosis,  twenty-three  were  inveterate  smokers." 

A  highly  intelligent  man  in  Vermont,  a  con- 
firmed smoker,  found  that  his  sight  was  gradually 
leaving  him.  Being  a  great  reader  he  felt  the 
trial  keenly,  and  was  quite  willing  to  follow  the 
total  abstinent  counsel  of  his  physician,  when 
his  sight  slowly  returned. 

A  general  freight-agent  in  Indiana,  from  exces- 
sive smoking,  found  his  vision  growing  dim  ;  but, 
disregarding  the  expostulations  of  his  friends  and 
the  entreaties  of  his  wife,  he  held  on  to  his  cigar. 
One  day,  on  lifting  a  great  weight,  the  heavy 
strain  went  to  the  weakened  optic  nerve,  and  he 
became  blind.  He  immediately  abandoned  smok- 
ing, and  put  himself  under  the  care  of  a  physician. 
It  was  too  late,  however,  and,  full  of  the  keenest 
self-reproach,  he  caused  this  account  to  be  pub- 
lished as  a  warning  to  others. 

It  is  affirmed,  on  medical  testimony,  that  color- 
blindness is  often  caused  by  the  tobacco  habit.  A 
well-known  public  lecturer  made  the  following 
statement :  — 

"  A  leading  oculist  of  the  United  States  asserted 
before  a  Science  Congress,   in  one  of  our  cities, 


76  TOBACCO. 

that  he  had  examined  the  eyes  of  twelve  thousand 
of  the  boys  and  girls  of  that  city ;  that  he  found 
four  per  cent  of  the  boys  color-blind,  while  but 
ten  girls  were  thus  affected.  The  boys  could  tell 
black  from  white,  but  they  could  not  tell  blue  from 
green,  or  the  different  shades  of  various  colors. 
f  I  find,'  said  he,  ( the  average  boy  of  twelve  with 
a  cigarette  in  his  mouth,  which  is  dipped  in  nico- 
tine"' " 

Notwithstanding  the  source  from  which  it  came, 
the  audience  received  the  statement  with  such  in- 
credulity, that  the  oculist  requested  and  received 
permission  to  bring  his  science-test  to  bear  on  the 
spot.  These  were  men,  not  boys ;  women,  not 
girls ;  and  not  four,  but  ten  per  cent  of  the  men 
were  color-blind ;  while  not  a  woman  was  thus 
affected. 

When  we  consider  that  the  safety  of  our  trains, 
with  their  hundreds  and  thousands  of  passengers, 
is  often  dependent  on  the  instant  and  accurate  ren- 
dering of  signals, — the  color  of  a  li^ht  or  of  a 
flag,  —  we  can  easily  see  howT  utterly  such  a  defect 
in  the  vision  disqualifies  one  for  this  service. 

A  thorough  and  annual  examination  of  all  these 
employes  would  seem  indispensable  to  public 
safety. 

DELIRIUM    TREMENS. 

That  most  terrible  of  diseases,  delirium  tremens, 
which  was  formerly  regarded  as  due  only  to 
alcohol,  is  now,  by  Dr.  Abraham  Spoor  and  other 


PHYSICAL   AND   INTELLECTUAL   VIEW.  77 

learned  doctors,  ascribed  largely  "to  the  exasper- 
ating  agency  of  tobacco  upon  the  human  nerves 
and  organism." 

One  of  the  resident  medical  officers  of  St. 
Thomas'  Hospital,  London,  reports  three  cases  of 
delirium  tremens  induced  by  tobacco  smoke. 

I  know  of  a  Southern  tobacco-grower  who,  by 
excessive  smoking,  is  reduced  to  a  deplorable  con- 
dition. He  falls  into  the  deepest  gloom,  breaking 
forth  in  the  night  into  frightful  ravings,  and 
threatening  his  wife  with  murder.  To  what  a  life 
of  wretchedness  and  terror  has  he  thus  doomed 
her ! 

A  mechanic,  standing  high  in  a  temperance 
lodge,  was  subject  to  fearful  sufferings,  his  whole 
family  being  at  times  called  to  his  bedside  at  mid- 
night to  witness  what  seemed  his  dying  agonies. 
In  one  of  these  dreadful  paroxysms  a  doctor  was 
summoned.  "  Do  you  use  strong  drinks  ?  "  "  No." 
"Do  you  belong  to  the  Sons  of  Temperance?" 
w  Yes."  "  I  supposed  you  did ;  you  use  tobacco. 
This  is  a  tobacco  fit ;  this  is  delirium  tremens. 
Drop  tobacco,  or  tobacco  will  drop  you."  He  did 
drop  it,  and  has  known  nothing  of  delirium  tre- 
mens since. 

HEART  DISEASE  ;    SMOKER'S  CANCER. 

The  physician  of  an  insurance  company,  after 
examining  a  certain  applicant,  reported  against 
issuing  him  a  policy  on  the  ground  of  his  having 
what  the  doctors  call  "  tobacco-heart." 


78  TOBACCO. 

Dr.  Townson,  another  physician  to  insurance 
companies,  stated  that  nearly  every  one  of  those 
whom  he  had  rejected  had  an  affection  of  the  heart 
from  excessive  smoking. 

Dr.  E.  Smith  found  that  after  smoking  eleven 
minutes  his  pulse  had  risen  from  seventy-four  to  a 
hundred  and  twelve  beats.  Another  physician, 
who  counted  his  pulse  every  five  minutes  during 
an  hour's  smoking,  computed  that  it  had  beat  a 
thousand  times  in  excess. 

Dr.  Magruder,  Medical  Examiner  of  the  United 
States  Navy,  affirms  that "  one  out  of  every  hundred 
applicants  for  enlistment  is  rejected  because  of 
irritable  heart,  arising  from  tobacco-poisoning." 

According  to  official  statement,  "Thousands  in 
our  civil  war  were  discharged  from  the  army  on 
account  of  heart-disease,  owing  largely  to  the  use 
of  tobacco." 

Dr.  Bowditch,  formerly  chairman  of  the  State 
Board  of  Health,  and  one  of  the  most  eminent 
physicians  in  Boston,  considers  tobacco  nearly  as 
dangerous  and  deadly  as  alcohol,  and  pronounces 
a  man  with  a  "  tobacco  heart "  as  badly  off  as  a 
drunkard. 

Dr.  Twitchell :  "  The  sedative  effect  of  tobacco 
upon  the  brain  is  so  great  that  it  often  requires  an 
act  of  the  will  to  stimulate  the  involuntary  muscles 
to  action,  so  that  when  sleep  arrests  this  will-power 
these  muscles  cease  to  act,  the  breathing  stops,  and 
the  person  is  found  dead  in  his  bed,  —  f  from 
heart-disease  '  say  his  friends,  but  in  reality  from 


PHYSICAL   AND   INTELLECTUAL   VIEW.  79 

tobacco-paralysis  of  the  heart  and  muscles  of  in- 
spiration. " 

Dr.  Corson  relates  the  case  of  a  smoker  who, 
having  suffered  greatly  for  seven  years,  was  one 
day  seized  with  intense  pain  in  the  chest,  a  gasping 
for  breath,  and  a  sensation  as  if  a  crowbar  were 
pressed  tightly  against  his  breast  and  then  twisted 
in  a  knot  round  the  heart,  which  would  cease 
beating  and  then  leap  wildly,  the  heart  being 
found  to  miss  every  fourth  beat.  For  twenty- 
seven  years,  similar,  though  milder,  attacks  con- 
tinued, sometimes  two  or  three  times  a  day.  He 
grew  thin  and  pale  as  a  ghost.  At  length  he  gave 
up  tobacco,  and  in  a  few  weeks  the  paroxysms 
ceased,  he  grew  stout  and  hearty,  and  for  twenty 
years  has  enjoyed  excellent  health. 

Mr.  Carpenter :  "  The  smoker's  sore  throat,  and 
diseases  of  the  tongue  and  gums  are  notorious." 

Lip  and  tongue  cancers  are  not  infrequent  results 
of  continuous  smoking.  Of  the  latter  Dr.  Lizars 
gives  some  terrible  instances.  One  of  the  victims 
he  describes  as  "  writhing  in  agony,  unable  to 
speak  or  swallow,  his  tongue  having  mouldered 
quite  away." 

We  learn  from  the  public  journals  that  Senator 
Hill's  cancer  was  the  result  of  smoking, "  the  nico- 
tine being  absorbed  by  a  blister  on  the  tongue/' 

Catelain,  "the  Parisian  Delmonico,"  died  of  what 
is  called  the  smoker's  cancer.  He  had  the  unen- 
viable distinction  of  being  regarded  as  the  greatest 
smoker  in  the  world,  his  daily  allowance  for  thirty 


80  TOBACCO. 

years  being  twenty  of  the  largest  cigars,  the  whole 
expense  being  estimated  at  from  forty  to  fifty 
thousand  dollars. 

We  are  told  of  a  Western  clergyman,  an  exces- 
sive smoker,  who,  dying  of  this  same  disease, 
expressed  submission  to  the  will  of  God  "  who  had 
decreed  his  death  in  that  particular  manner."  He 
may  have  been  a  good  man,  and  sincere  in  his 
ignorance,  but  ought  he  not  to  have  known  that 
he  was  neither  more  nor  less  than  a  suicide  ? 

IMPAIRED   MUSCULAR   FORCE. 

There  is  a  fact  well  known  to  the  medical  pro- 
fession which  speaks  volumes.  It  is  that  tobacco- 
using  surgeons  are  unable  to  perform  any  nice 
operation,  unless  the  nerves,  unstrung  by  the  nar- 
cotic, are  first  steadied  by  some  powerful  drug  or 
alcoholic  stimulant. 

Some  physicians  maintain  that  a  smoker  cannot 
be  a  successful  oculist,  as  firmness  of  nerve  is 
one  of  the  essentials  in  the  treatment  of  so  delicate 
an  organ  as  the  eye. 

An  impairing  of  the  muscular  force  is  often  seen 
in  the  tremulous  hand-writing  of  the  tobacco- 
votary.  So  significant  is  this,  that  applicants  for 
the  situation  of  book-keeper  have  sometimes  been 
rejected  because  of  the  habit  thus  indicated.  That 
there  is  the  same  betrayal  of  the  habit  in  drawing, 
we  find  in  a  letter  of  Medical  Inspector  Gorgas, 
who  writes  to  the  superintendent  of  the  Naval 
A  en  demy  at  Annapolis  :     "  The  professor  of  draw- 


PHYSICAL   AND   INTELLECTUAL   VIEW.  81 

ing  informs  me  that  he  has  observed  among  the 
smokers  an  impaired  power  of  muscular  control, 
which  has  retarded  their  progress  and  proficiency 
in  this  branch." 

Dr.  Gihon  also  says  :  "  The  defective  muscular 
co-ordination  occasioned  by  this  drug  is  remarkably 
illustrated  by  the  fact  —  which  I  learn  from  Professor 
Oliver,  head  of  the  department  of  drawing — that 
he  can  invariably  recognize  the  user  of  tobacco  by 
his  tremulous  hand  in  manipulating  the  pencil,  and 
by  his  "  absolute  inability  to  draw  a  clean,  straight 
line." 

It  is  well  understood  that,  in  the  regimen  of 
athletes,  pugilists,  and  oarsmen  in  preparation  for 
boat-races,  no  rule  is  more  rigid  than  that  which 
prescribes  an  utter  abstaining  from  all  forms  of 
tobacco ;  and  this  solely  because  of  its  enervating 
influence  on  the  nerves  and  muscles.  Says  Parton, 
"  No  smoker  who  has  ever  trained  severely  for  a 
race,  or  a  game,  or  a  fight  needs  to  be  told  that 
smoking  reduces  the  tone  of  the  system  and 
diminishes  all  the  forces  of  his  body.  He  knows 
it." 

Dr.  W.  F.  Carver,  the  famous  marksman,  says  : 
"  I  have  never  tasted  intoxicating  drinks,  nor  do  I 
use  tobacco  in  any  form." 

An  Ohio  gentleman  tells  me  of  a  brother  of 
great  nerve,  who  had  been  an  excellent  shot.  He 
became  a  smoker,  and  meeting  him  after  a  long 
separation,  the  brother  found  him  with  trembling 
hands  and  shattered  nerves.     On  challenging  him 


82  TOBACCO. 

to  a  shooting  match  as  of  old,  he  accepted.  He 
could  not  even  aim  straight,  still  less  could  he  hit 
a  mark,  however  near.  The  virtue  had  all  gone 
out  of  him.  He  made  up  his  mind  to  stop  short, 
but  his  sufferings  were  pitiable,  the  miserable  slave 
continually  fumbling  in  his  pockets  after  the  longed- 
for  weed. 

Mr.  Hanlan,  the  victor  of  the  international  boat- 
race,  said  before  he  left  England  :  "  In  my  opinion, 
the  best  physical  performances  can  only  be  secured 
through  the  absolute  abstinence  from  alcohol  and 
tobacco.  This  is  my  rule.  In  fact,  I  believe  that 
the  use  of  liquor  and  tobacco  has  a  most  injurious 
effect  upon  the  system  of  an  athlete,  by  irritating 
the  vitals  and  consequently  weakening  the  system." 

Does  not  the  same  reasoning  apply  even  more 
strongly  to  the  soldier  ?  No  man,  surely,  has  greater 
need  of  unflinching  nerve  and  never-failing  endur- 
ance. For  no  man  is  the  best  possible  physical 
condition  of  more  supreme  importance.  The  Duke 
of  Wellington  complained  of  the  excessive  use  of 
tobacco  by  his  soldiers,  and  attempted  to  restrain 
it.  Another  distinguished  English  officer,  Gen. 
Markham,  was  so  convinced  of  the  injurious  effects 
of  this  drug,  that  he  neither  smoked  himself  nor 
allowed  any  of  his  personal  staff  to  do  so. 

Mr.  Meadows  tells  us,  in  the  British  Quarterly 
Review,  that,  in  China,  "the  soldier  who  smokes 
tobacco  is  bambooed." 

In  a  letter  to  Dr.  Lizars,  Mr.  Anton  writes : 
"lam  convinced  that  a  soldier  who  is  an  inveter- 


PHYSICAL   AND   INTELLECTUAL   VIEW.  83 

ate  smoker  is  incapable  to  level  his  musket  with 
precision  and  without  shaking  his  hand,  so  as  to 
take  steady  aim.  I  recall  instances  of  nervous 
trepidation  which  rendered  many  a  brave  man  use- 
less as  a  marksman  or  musketeer." 

Corroborating  this  statement  is  a  quotation  from 
Mr.  O' Flaherty,  who  says  that  "he  has  known 
men  who,  previous  to  their  using  tobacco,  could 
send  a  bullet  through  the  target  at  eight  hundred 
yards'  distance ;  but  who,  after  they  had  become 
smokers  and  chewers,  became  so  nervous  that  they 
could  scarcely  send  one  into  a  hay-stack  at  a  hun- 
dred yards'  distance." 

During  our  civil  war,  a  large  number  of  the 
diseases  in  the  soldiers'  hospitals  were  attributed, 
in  a  great  degree,  to  the  inordinate  use  of  this 
drug,  which  was  often  sent  to  them  through  the 
mistaken  kindness  and  sympathy  of  distant  friends. 
And  many  a  man  is  now  a  miserable  slave  to  the 
tyrant,  who  took  his  first  lessons  in  that  same  war. 

SHATTERED  NERVES  ;  INSANITY. 

There  are  eminent  physicians  to  whom  almost 
every  day  brings  fresh  confirmation  of  the  fact 
that  nervous  and  brain  diseases  are  not  infre- 
quently caused  by  the  tobacco  habit. 

Prof.  Kirke,  in  Nerves  and  Narcotics:  "  You  see 
a  man  weary,  and  yet  restless.  By  means  of  the 
narcotic  this  nervous  irritation  is  subdued.  The 
supply  of  vital  force  from  the  organic  centres  to 
the  motor  nerves  is  so  much  lessened  that  the  irri- 


84  TOBACCO. 

toting  movement  in  them  ceases.  This  gives  a 
sense  of  relief  to  the  person  affected.  He  is  not 
aware  that  the  benefit  is  purchased  at  a  very  seri- 
ous cost.  He  has  not  only  lessened  the  supply 
of  vital  force  for  the  time  being,  but  has  done  a 
very  considerable  amount  of  injury  to  his  vital 
system.  He  has,  in  fact,  poisoned  the  springs  of 
life  within  him.  As  soon  as  these  nerves  rally 
from  the  lowering  effect  of  the  narcotic,  the 
irritation  returns,  and  the  narcotic  is  called  for 
anew.  Fresh  injury  is  inflicted  for  the  sake  of 
the  ease  desired.  This  goes  on  till  the  vital  cen- 
tres, if  at  all  delicate,  totally  foil  to  give  supply  to 
the  motor  nerves,  and  paralysis  begins.  Yet  the 
man  goes  on  indulging  in  the  so-called  luxury  of 
the  narcotic." 

Dr.  Allen  :  w  Many  smokers,  naturally  bold  and 
resolute,  lose  their  fortitude,  become  unable  to  bear 
pain,  are  nervous  in  the  society  of  others,  and  even 
afraid  of  being  left  alone  at  night." 

Dr.  Lizars :  f'  I  have  invariably  found  that 
patients  addicted  to  smoking  became  cowardly, 
and  deficient  in  manly  fortitude  to  undergo  any 
surgical  operation,  however  trifling." 

Dr.  Brodie  :  K  The  earliest  symptoms  are  mani- 
fested in  the  derangement  of  the  nervous  system. 
Almost  the  worst  case  of  neuralgia  that  ever  came 
under  my  observation  was  that  of  a  gentleman 
who  consulted  the  late  Dr.  Bright  and  myself. 
The  pains  were  universal  and  never  absent,  but 
during  the  night  they  were  specially  intense,  so 


PHYSICAL    AND    INTELLECTUAL   VIEW.  85 

as  almost  wholly  to  prevent  sleep.  Neither  the 
patient  himself  nor  his  medical  attendants  had  any 
doubt  that  the  disease  was  to  be  attributed  to  his 
habit  of  smoking,  on  the  discontinuance  of  which 
he  gradually  recovered." 

Another  physician  :  "  The  natural  vibration  be- 
tween excessive  action  of  the  brain  and  correspond- 
ing depression,  caused  by  tobacco,  is  mental 
unbalancing  and  overthrow.  Memory  is  weakened, 
the  perceptions  are  blunted,  cowardice  is  engen- 
dered, the  power  of  the  will  enervated,  and  insanity 
is  the  result." 

From  a  long  array  of  nervous  cases  by  dis- 
tinguished physicians,  I  have  gathered  the  following 
symptoms  :  —  great  mental  depression,  weak- 
ness of  voluntary  muscles,  neuralgia  local  and 
general,  trembling,  vertigo,  difficulty  in  standing 
steadily  or  moving  directly,  shaking  palsy,  convul- 
sions, uncontrollable  nervous  tremors,  a  cataleptic 
condition,  hysterics,  twitching  of  the  flexor  muscles 
of  the  whole  body,  palpitation,  movements  and 
gesticulations  like  St.  Vitus'  dance,  startings  from 
sleep,  insomnia,  epileptic  tits,  choking  sensations, 
rush  of  blood  to  the  head,  cramps,  numbness, 
paralysis,  shocks  in  the  epigastrium  like  elec- 
tricity. 

In  almost  every  case  a  suspension  of  the 
tobacco-habit  brought  relief,  while  with  a  return 
to  it  the  symptoms  came  back. 

We  learn  that  Mr.  Andreas  Hofer,  who  was 
grandson  of  the  Tyrolean  patriot  shot  by  order  of 


86  TOBACCO. 

Napoleon  I.,  and  who  was  long  a  member  of 
the  Austrian  Parliament,  has  become  insane  from 
his  excessive  use  of  tobacco. 

An  Ohio  friend  tells  me  of  a  young  man  in 
business  whose  excessive  smoking  and  chewing 
so  broke  him  down  mentally  and  morally  that  it 
was  necessary  to  dismiss  him  from  the  firm  of 
of  which  he  was  a  member.  In  the  course  of  a 
year,  about  eight  thousand  dollars,  awarded  him 
as  his  share  of  the  profits,  were  all  squandered. 
The  father,  from  fear  of  personal  violence,  was 
compelled  to  place  him  in  an  insane  asylum. 
His  single  chance  for  recovery  was  entire  absti- 
nence ;  yet  the  father,  in  his  blind  fondness,  with 
his  own  hand  supplied  him  with  cigars,  and  the 
doctors  did  not  interfere  ! 

A  young  man  promised  his  father  that  he  would 
abstain  from  smoking  till  he  was  twenty-one. 
That  time  had  no  sooner  arrived  than  he  set 
himself  to  learn,  and  though  nature  made  a  fierce 
revolt,  and  he  suffered  terribly  in  the  process,  he 
persevered  till  he  succeeded,  when  his  health 
broke  down  and  he  became  a  confirmed  epileptic. 
Well  does  Lord  Bacon  say :  —  "To  smoke  is  a 
secret  delight,  serving  to  steal  away  men's  brains," 
and  another  :  "  Tobacco  carries  but  a  thin  edge  of 
enjoyment  ahead,  and  a  blunt  edge  of  dull  stupidity 
and  crackling  sorrow  and  nervous  derangement 
behind." 

A  member  of  the  Paris  Academy  of  Medicine  : 
w  Statistics  show  that  in  exact  proportion  with  the 


PHYSICAL  AND   INTELLECTUAL   VIEW.  87 

increased  consumption  of  tobacco  is  the  increase 
of  diseases  in  the  nervous  centres,  —  insanity, 
general  paralysis,  paraplegia,  and  certain  cancerous 
affections." 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Medical  and  Chirurgical 
Society  of  London,  Dr.  Webster  read  a  paper  on 
the  Statistics  and  Morbid  Anatomy  of  Mental 
Diseases,  in  which  he  cites  the  great  use  of  tobacco 
as  prominent  among  the  causes,  supporting  his 
opinion  from  statistics  as  to  insanity  in  Germany. 

Strong  testimony  on  this  subject  follows  from 
various  institutions  for  the  insane.  From  the 
Superintendent  of  the  Pennsylvania  Insane  Hospi- 
tal:  "The  earlier  boys  begin  to  use  tobacco,  the 
more  strongly  marked  are  its  effects  upon  the 
nerves  and  brain."  From  a  report  by  Dr.  Kirk- 
bride  of  this  Hospital :  "  Six  cases  of  insanity 
were  clearly  attributable  to  the  use  of  tobacco." 

From  Dr.  Harlow,  at  the  head  of  the  Maine  In- 
sane Asylum  :  "  The  pernicious  effect  of  tobacco  on 
the  brain  and  nervous  system  is  obvious  to  all 
who  are  called  to  treat  the  insane." 

From  the  Superintendent  of  the  New  York 
Insane  Asylum  :  "  Tobacco  has  done  more  to 
precipitate  mind  into  the  vortex  of  insanity  than 
spirituous  liquors." 

From  Dr.  Bancroft,  for  many  years  at  the  head 
of  the  Insane  Asylum,  Concord,  New  Hampshire : 
"I  have  known  several  cases  of  insanity  most 
unquestionably  produced  by  the  use  of  tobacco 
without  other  complicating  causes,  and  which  have 


88  TOBACCO. 

been  cured  by  the  suspension  of  the  habit ;  while 
the  number  in  which  it  was  prominent  among  the 
causes  is  much  larger." 

From  Dr.  Woodward,  of  the  Insane  Asylum  at 
"Worcester,  Massachusetts  :  "  That  tobacco  pro- 
duces insanity  I  am  fully  confident.  Its  influence 
upon  the  brain  and  nervous  system  is  hardly  less 
than  that  of  alcohol,  and,  if  excessively  used,  is 
equally  injurious." 

At  one  time,  eight  cases  of  insanity  from  tobacco 
were  found  in  this  Asylum. 

According  to  the  New  York  World,  "  in  nine 
cases  out  of  eleven,  where  insanity  has  resulted 
from  inebriation,  the  primary  cause  was  smoking." 
This  journal  also  gives  the  number  of  patients  in 
insane  asylums,  under  treatment  for  rf  confirmed 
inebriation  resulting  in  insanity,"  whose  use  of 
tobacco  had  led  them  to  intemperance. 

In  Bloomingdale  Asylum,  out  of    ...     .  100  87 

In  Flatbush  Asylum,  out  of 64  49 

In  Trenton  Asylum,  out  of 56  48 

In  Columbus  Asylum,  out  of 74  62 

From  a  French  publication,  we  learn  that  the 
increase  of  insanity  in  France  has  kept  pace  with 
the  increase  of  the  revenue  from  tobacco.  In 
presenting  to  the  Academy  of  Science  the  statistics 
which  prove  this  assertion,  M.  Jolly  remarks, — 
that  "the  immoderate  use  of  tobacco  produces  an 
affection  of  the  spinal  marrow  and  a  weakness  of 
the  brain  which  causes  madness." 

In  speaking  of  mania  as  a  result  of  using  tobacco, 


PHYSICAL   AND   INTELLECTUAL   VIEW.  89 

Dr.  Lizars  of  Edinburgh  skives  an  account  of  two 
brothers  connected  with  a  family  where  there  was 
no  tendency  to  insanity,  who,  through  this  nar- 
cotic, lost  their  reason  and  committed  suicide. 

He  also  relates  the  case  of  a  gentleman  of  thirty- 
five  who  drank,  smoked,  and  chewed,  till  attacked 
by  fits  resembling  epilepsy,  when  he  was  taken  to 
an  insane  retreat.  He  gave  up  drink,  but  no 
improvement  occurred  till  he  abandoned  tobacco, 
when  the  fits  ceased  and  sanity  returned. 

TOBACCO-HEREDITY. 

A  leading  physician  in  one  of  our  largest  cities, 
in  speaking  of  those  who  had  indulged  in  the  use 
of  tobacco  for  years  with  seeming  impunity,  adds  : 
"  But  I  have  never  known  a  habitual  tobacco  user 
whose  children,  born  after  he  had  long  used  it,  did 
not  have  deranged  nervous  systems  and  sometimes 
evidently  weak  minds.  Shattered  nervous  systems 
for  generations  to  come  may  be  the  result  of  this 
indulgence." 

It  is  claimed  by  some  doctors  that  the  effects  of 
tobacco  on  posterity  are  even  greater  than  those  of 
alcohol ;  that  it  destroys  more  vital  force,  and  thus 
saps  the  very  foundations,  transmitting  a  tendency 
to  disease.  Sometimes,  the  dreadful  appetite  itself 
is  entailed  upon  the  child. 

Dr.  Hall :  "  The  parent  whose  blood  and  secretions 
are  saturated  with  tobacco,  and  whose  brain  and 
nervous  system  are  narcotized  by  it,  must  trans- 
mit to  his  child  elements  of  a  distempered  body 


90  TOBACCO. 

and  erratic  mind  ;  a  deranged  condition  of  organic 
atoms,  which  elevates  the  animalism  of  future  being 
at  the  expense  of  the  moral  and  intellectual  na- 
ture." 

Brodie :  "  This  is  a  sin  which  afflicts  the  third 
and  fourth  generation." 

Spain  is  one  vast  tobacco  shop,  which  fact  is 
said  to  account  largely  for  the  degeneracy  of  the 
nation.  So  long  ago  as  the  sixteenth  century, 
the  sultan  Amarath  inflicted  severe  punishment  on 
those  who  used  tobacco,  from  its  known  effects  in 
deteriorating  and  depleting  the  population.  In 
a  report  of  the  Medical  Director  of  the  United 
States  Navy,  we  find  the  following  testimony  on 
the  same  point :  "  The  pernicious  effect  of  tobacco 
on  the  generative  function  is  authoritatively  asserted 
by  Acton,  who  declared,  —  *  I  am  quite  sure  that 
excessive  smokers,  if  very  young,  never  acquire, 
and,  if  older,  rapidly  lose,  their  normal  virile 
powers.'" 

A  good  man,  unconscious  of  the  wrong  he  was 
doing,  smoked  for  many  a  year,  often  suffering 
intensely,  but  without  understanding  the  cause. 
A  tract  on  the  subject,  which  fell  into  his  hands, 
brought  him  needed  light  and  led  him  to  give  up 
tobacco.  This  prolonged  his  life,  but  the  change 
came  too  late  for  his  son,  who,  as  a  consequence  of 
his  father's  habit,  inherits  an  impaired  constitution. 
A  life-long  sufferer  on  this  account,  he  is  untiring  in 
his  efforts  to  convince  others  of  the  great  evil  of  the 
tobacco  habit,  declaring  that  he  is  "  before  Richmond 


PHYSICAL   AND   INTELLECTUAL   VIEW.  91 

on  this  question  until  the  King  of  Battles  gives  him 
an  honorable  discharge." 

w  I  can  point  you,"  says  a  physician,  "to  two  fami- 
lies right  under  my  eye,  where  in  each  case  there 
is  a  nest  of  little  children  rendered  idiots  by  the 
tobacco  habits  of  their  parents." 

A  doctor  found  among  the  patients  at  an  infir- 
mary a  young  man  suffering  from  tobacco  symp- 
toms. "  What  will  you  say  to  this  case  ?  "  inquired 
a  medical  friend ;  "  the  youth  has  never  chewed, 
smoked,  or  taken  snuff."  "His  father  did  it  for 
him,"  replied  the  doctor.  Turning  to  the  father 
the  question  was  asked,  "  How  long  have  you 
smoked?"  "  These-five-and  twenty  years."  "Have 
you  ever  smoked  an  ounce  of  tobacco  a  day  ?  " 
"Yes,  many  times." 

Dr.  Richardson  :  "  If  a  community  of  youths  of 
both  sexes,  whose  progenitors  were  finely  formed 
and  powerful,  were  to  be  trained  to  the  early  prac- 
tice of  smoking,  and  if  marriage  were  to  be  con- 
fined to  the  smokers,  an  apparently  new,  and  a 
physically  inferior,  race  of  men  and  women  would 
be  bred." 

Dr.  Cowan :  "  Of  all  the  harm  done  by  the  use 
of  tobacco,  the  greater  harm  and  the  mightiest 
wrong  is  that  of  transmitting,  to  the  unborn,  the 
appetite  for  the  filthy,  disease-creating,  misery- 
engendering  drug." 

A  business  man  who  was  an  excessive  smoker, 
but  whose  work  was  mostly  in  the  open  air,  had 
no  consciousness  of  injurious  effects.     Of  his  two 


92  TOBACCO. 

sons,  however,  one  had  paroxysms  of  insanity, 
and  the  other  drunkenness.  The  mother  was  a 
healthy  woman,  and  no  trace  of  insanity  or  of 
drinking  habits  could  be  found  in  the  family  on 
either  side ;  so  that,  by  good  medical  authority, 
the  condition  of  the  sons  was  attributed  to  the  use 
of  tobacco  by  the  father. 

Of  two  Reverend  D.D.'s  who  were  inordinate 
users  of  tobacco,  the  children  of  one  were  dissi- 
pated and  intemperate,  while  those  of  the  other  suf- 
fered every  form  of  pain  and  agony,  resulting  from 
weak  and  disordered  nerves.  In  both  cases,  the 
evil  was  pronounced  hereditary,  —  the  result  of 
the  selfish  indulgence  of  the  fathers. 

"The  men  of  the  West,"  writes  one,  "are  not 
only  filling  themselves  with  this  horrid  poison,  but 
in  numberless  ways  are  transmitting  the  deadly 
influence  to  their  offspring.  How  any  man  who 
knows  that  the  condition  of  the  parent  influences, 
for  good  or  ill,  his  offspring,  can  become  the  father 
of  children  while  his  system  is  so  dominated  by 
this  powerful  narcotic  that  abstinence  for  twenty- 
four  hours  nearly  sets  him  crazy,  I  cannot  con- 
ceive." 

Says  the  Journal  of  Science  and  Health,  w  There 
are  Christians  and  temperance  men  who  are  trying 
to  redeem  the  world  from  sin  and  drunkenness, 
yet  who  are  begetting  children  so  depraved  in 
their  physical  organization  that  their  desire  for 
stimulants  it  is  almost  impossible  for  them  to 
resist." 


PHYSICAL   AND   INTELLECTUAL   VIEW.  93 

An  authentic  account  is  given  of  the  child  of  an 
inveterate  smoker,  a  mere  infant,  whose  stomach 
rejected  food,  and  who  was  pining  away  for  lack 
of  nourishment.  To  quiet  it,  the  father  held  a 
cigar  between  its  lips.  The  babe  greedily  sucked 
it,  and  by  means  of  the  stimulus  was  able  to  take 
food.  But  this  tobacco,  for  which  it  inherited  so 
unnatural  a  craving,  proved  a  necessity.  It  could 
not  get  on  without  it.  I  hardly  need  add  that 
under  its  influence  the  child  gradually  became 
dwarfed  and  idiotic.  "  The  fathers  have  eaten  sour 
grapes,  and  the  children's  teeth  are  set  on  edge." 
Are  we  doomed,  in  the  future,  to  have  a  race  of 
idiots  ? 

One  of  our  public  journals  gives  the  account  of 
a  four-year-old  who  inherited  the  narcotic  appe- 
tite, cigars  being  "  necessarily  given  from  infancy 
to  keep  him  quiet."  This  continued,  till  he  came 
to  smoke  twenty  stoga  cigars  a  day,  and  then  cry 
for  more.  Spinal  disease  setting  in,  he  was  taken 
to  a  surgical  institute.  When  the  doctors  took 
away  his  cigars,  "  the  child  kicked  and  howled 
like  a  maniac." 

A  physician  relates  the  case  of  a  smoker  whose 
children  "  were  cursed  from  their  birth.  His  idi- 
otic boy  would  scoop  up  the  loathsome  ashes 
scraped  from  his  father's  pipe  and  eat  them  with 
avidity ! " 

Surely  Dr.  Pidduck  is  justified  in  his  assertion 
in  The  Lancet  of  1856,  that  "  in  no  instance  is  the 
sin  of  the  father  more  strikingly  visited  upon  his 


94  TOBACCO. 

children  than  the  sin  of  tobacco-smoking. "  He 
adds,  —  w  The  enervation,  the  hypochondriasis,  the 
hysteria,  the  insanity,  the  dwarfish  deformities, 
the  consumption,  the  suffering  lives  and  early  deaths 
of  the  children  of  inveterate  smokers,  bear  ample 
testimony  to  the  feebleness  and  unsoundness  of  the 
constitution  transmitted  by  this  pernicious  habit." 

A  man  of  fine  abilities,  a  member  of  one  of  the 
learned  professions,  had  early  formed  the  habit  of 
both  smoking  and  chewing.  It  grew  upon  him  till 
it  had  gained  a  complete  mastery.  His  child  was 
diseased  from  infancy,  had  terrible  convulsions, 
became  deformed  and  idiotic.  The  father  suffered 
from  entire  nervous  derangement,  and  finally  sank 
into  a  decline.  It  was  a  bitter  harvest  that  he 
reaped  for  his  indulgence, — the  ruin  of  himself 
and  child.  rr  Oh,  if  I  could  only  live  my  life  over," 
he  exclaimed,  K  I  would  never  touch  the  weed. 
AVould  that  I  could  warn  every  boy  and  every 
young  man  against  this  dreadful  evil !  " 

Alas  !  this  Havana  cloud  on  the  horizon,  is  it 
not  a  very  dreadful  one  ? 

surgeox-general's  report. 

In  the  Report  of  the  Surgeon-General  of  the 
United  States  Army  for  1881,  Dr.  Albert  L. 
Gihon,  senior  medical  officer  of  the  Naval  Academy 
at  Annapolis,  Md.,  is  referred  to,  as  having  made 
a  special  study  of  the  physical  development  of 
applicants  for  admission  to  that  institution,  and 
also  of  the  cadets  at  stated  intervals.    Dr.  Gihon's 


PHYSICAL    AND   INTELLECTUAL   VIEW.  95 

report  to  the  surgeon-general  contains  a  graphic 
portraiture  of  the  effects  of  tobacco,  more  espe- 
cially on  the  young.  Some  extracts  from  this 
report  will  make  a  fitting  close  of  this  chapter. 

"Unquestionably  the  most  important  matter 
in  the  health  history  of  the  students  at  this  acad- 
emy is  that  relating  to  the  use  of  tobacco.  I  have 
urged  upon  the  superintendent,  as  my  last  official 
utterance,  the  fact,  of  the  truth  of  which  five  years' 
experience  as  health-officer  of  this  station  has  sat- 
isfied me,  that,  beyond  all  other  things,  the  future 
health  and  usefulness  of  the  lads  educated  at  this 
school  require  the  absolute  interdiction  of  tobacco. 

"In  this  opinion  I  have  been  sustained,  not  only 
by  all  my  colleagues,  but  by  all  other  sanitarians 
in  military  and  civil  life  whose  views  I  have  been 
able  to  learn ;  while  I  know  it  to  be  the  belief  of 
the  officer  who  is  to  succeed  me  in  the  charge  of 
this  department,  and  who  was  one  of  the  Board  of 
Medical  Officers  which,  in  1875,  reported  that 
*  the  regulations  against  the  use  of  tobacco  in  any 
form  could  not  be  too  stringent.'  Since  then, 
three  successive  annual  Boards  of  Visitors  have 
indorsed  the  prohibition  of  tobacco,  as  a  wise  sani- 
tary provision ;  and  the  last  of  these  Boards,  on 
being  informed  that  the  regulation  against  its  use 
was  not  then  in  operation  (June,  1879),  emphatic- 
ally recommended  that f  its  strict  enforcement  be 
at  once  restored.' 

"With  a  sense  of  the  serious  responsibility 
which  devolves  on  the  sanitary  officer  of  this  estab- 


96  TOBACCO. 

lishment,  conscious  that  the  bodily  welfare  and 
happiness  of  these  young  men  and  of  their  future 
offspring  may  be  permanently  influenced  by  this 
vicious  indulgence,  I  have  most  earnestly  ad- 
vised that  the  strongest  efforts  of  the  authorities 
of  the  academy  shall  be  directed  towards  the  pre- 
vention of  this  pernicious,  indefensible,  and  wholly 
unnecessary  habit. 

"  By  the  continued  excitation  of  the  optic  nerve, 
tobacco  produces  amaurosis, — a  fact  demonstrated 
by  Wordsworth,  Mackenzie,  Hutchinson,  Sichel, 
and  Chisholm. 

"I  have  myself  several  times  rejected  candidates 
for  admission  into  the  academy  on  account  of  defec- 
tive vision,  who  confessed  to  the  premature  use  of 
tobacco,  one  of  them  from  the  age  of  seven. 

"The  irregularity  in  the  heart's  action,  which 
tobacco  causes,  is  one  of  its  most  conspicuous 
effects.  Candidates  are  annually  rejected  for  car- 
diac disturbances,  who  have  subsequently  admitted 
the  use  of  tobacco  :  and  the  annual  physical  exam- 
inations of  cadets  reveal  a  large  number  of  irrita- 
ble hearts  ('tobacco  hearts')  among  boys,  who 
had  no  such  trouble  when  they  entered  the  school. 
Among  the  applicants  for  enlistment  as  appren- 
tices in  the  navy  during  the  year  1879,  ten  in  a 
thousand  were  rejected  for  functional  lesions  of  the 
heart,  indicating  tobacco-poisoning. 

"  Finally,  the  antidotal  effect  of  tobacco  makes 
drinking  of  stimulating  liquors  the  natural  conse^ 
quence  of  smoking." 


PHYSICAL   AND   INTELLECTUAL   VIEW.  97 

"While  it  is  indisputably  the  fact  that  a  large 
number  of  the  cadets  have  learned  to  smoke  before 
admission  to  the  academy,  its  compulsory  inhibi- 
tion during  their  academic  career  will  be  of  in- 
calculable benefit  to  them,  as  well  as  to  all  others 
who  now  unfortunately  acquire  the  habit  here 
through  the  example  of  their  schoolmates.  It  is 
almost  impossible  for  the  cadets,  however  young, 
—  and  some  enter  at  fourteen,  —  to  avoid  contract- 
ing the  habit,  if  his  room-mate  indulges  ;  and  the 
extent  of  this  indulgence  was  instanced  by  one  of 
the  officers  in  charge,  who  told  me  that  some  of 
the  rooms  were  so  foul  and  offensive  that  it  was 
unpleasant  to  enter  them.  The  medical  officer  of 
the  day  was,  not  long  since,  called  late  at  night  to 
attend  a  cadet  in  a  state  of  extreme  prostration 
caused  by  tobacco  ;  and,  although  himself  a  smoker, 
he  declared  the  atmosphere  of  the  room  to  be 
repulsively  stifling  from  tobacco  smoke.  I  have 
seen  youths,  fresh  from  graduation  from  this 
school,  go  on  board  ships  smoking  rank,  black- 
ened pipes  that  would  have  nauseated  many  an 
adult. 

"That  the  user  of  tobacco  is  incapable  of  con- 
centrated mental  effort  is  demonstrated  b}^  the  fact 
told  me  by  a  member  of  the  Academic  Board,  that 
cadets  have  complained  of  their  inability  to  apply 
themselves  to  study  and  attain  the  class-standing 
they  desired  on  account  of  the  excessive  smoking 
in  their  rooms,  in  which  they  were  compelled  to 
indulge. 


98  TOBACCO. 

"  An  agent  that  has  mischievously  been  repre- 
sented to  be  innocuous  only  because  of  the  re- 
markable tolerance  exhibited  by  a  few  individuals, 
and  is  actually  capable  of  such  potent  evil;  which, 
through  its  sedative  effect  upon  the  circulation, 
creates  a  thirst  for  alcoholic  stimulation ;  which, 
by  its  depressing  and  disturbing  effect  upon  the 
nerve  centres,  increases  sexual  propensities,  and 
induces  secret  practices,  while  permanently  im- 
perilling virile  power ;  which  determines  functional 
disease  of  the  heart ;  which  impairs  vision,  blunts 
the  memory,  and  interferes  with  mental  effort  and 
application,  —  ought,  in  my  opinion  as  a  sanitary 
officer,  at  whatever  cost  of  vigilance,  to  be  rigidly 
interdicted." 

Writes  Rev.  Dr.  J.  W.  Chickering:  "The  Nic- 
otine plant  is  poisoning  the  life-springs  of  coming 
generations ;  sowing  the  seeds  of  more  bodily 
diseases  than  even  strong  drink,  —  so  say  careful 
observers  of  physical  causes  and  effects ;  while 
those  in  charge  of  asylums  for  the  insane,  for 
idiots  and  feeble-rninded  persons,  trace  mental  and 
moral,  as  well  as  physical,  effects  to  the  same 
source.  Add  to  this  the  filthiness  of  these  habits 
and  the  selfish  disregard  to  the  comfort  of  others, 
so  generally  characteristic  of  the  tobacco  habit, 
and  it  becomes  a  profound  mystery  how  any  con- 
scientious, patriotic,  and  Christian  man  can  contri- 
bute to  the  hundreds  of  millions  annually  spent, 
and  to  the  pernicious  example  constantly  presented 
in  this  direction," 


TOBACCO  BENEFITS. 


DESTROYING  VERMIN  ;  EXCLUDING  LADIES  ;  MEL- 
LOWING THEOLOGY  ;  INDUCING  SELF-ABASEMENT  ; 
SUBDUING   BAD    SMELLS. 

Are  there  no  benefits,  you  will  ask,  resulting 
from  the  use  of  tobacco  ? 

I  have  alluded  to  the  security  it  affords  against 
being  devoured  by  wolves,  buzzards,  and  cannibals, 
of  which  advantage  its  defenders  are  at  liberty  to 
make  the  most. 

It  is  useful  in  destroying  sheep-ticks  and  any 
creature  that  molests  man.  The  vapor  of  tobacco- 
juice  has  been  tested  in  France  with  great  success 
as  an  insect-destroyer  in  hothouses,  effectually 
disposing  of  thrips,  scales,  and  slugs.  It  also 
scares  away  moths,  carpet-bugs,  and  other  vermin, 
and  thus  preserves  furs  and  woollens. 

By  excluding  ladies  from  festive  breakfast  and 
dinner  parties,  it  withdraws  from  gentlemen  a 
disagreeable  restraint. 

An  acquaintance  argues  that  smoking  tends  to 
round   off    sharp,    doctrinal   edges,    and   thus   to 

99 


100  TOBACCO. 

mellow  one's  theology ;  instancing  an  eminent 
Western  divine  who  has  become  a  total  abstainer, 
and  who,  he  says,  grows  more  and  more  conser- 
vative and  afraid  of  progress.  He  claims  that  if 
this  divine  had  continued  to  smoke,  the  extreme 
blueness  of  his  dogmas  would  have  passed  off  in 
the  blue  vapor  of  his  cigar  ! 

Still  another  benefit,  according  to  a  doctor  of 
divinity  whose  long  experience  entitles  him  to 
implicit  credit,  is  that  the  habit  gives  to  a  man  "  a 
sense  of  deep  humiliation  of  which  his  unpartaking 
brethren  can  know  very  little." 

"If  any  one  smokes  to  overcome  a  bad  smell," 
sa}Ts  Eussell  Lant  Carpenter,  —  "  he  only  adds  to 
the  nuisance ;  the  ashes  and  smoke  are  two  dirts 
the  more." 

PROTECTING   AGAINST   MALARIA    AND    TYPHOID. 

There  are  those  who  plead  that  tobacco  is  a 
safeguard  against  malarial  diseases. 

Dr.  Solly  makes  answer,  —  "I  dispute  the 
alleged  benefits  of  even  moderate  tobacco-smoking 
as  a  preventive  of  damp  or  malaria." 

In  a  cit}r  daily  appears  the  following  item  of 
consolation  for  lovers  of  the  weed  :  M  A  Virginia 
physician  says  he  has  never  known  an  habitual 
consumer  of  tobacco  to  have  typhoid  fever." 

A  Massachusetts  doctor  reports  the  case  of  "  an 
habitual  consumer "  who  has  had  typhoid  every 
summer  for  five  years.  Dr.  H.  J.  Cate,  of 
Saratoga,  knows  M  an  habitual  consumer  "  who  "  for 


TOBACCO   BENEFITS.  101 

a  series  of  years,  has  had  an  annual  attack  of  this 
fever."  Another  physician,  living  in  a  mining 
country  where  all  use  the  weed,  affirms  that  he  could 
report  hundreds  of  similar  cases.  Indeed,  so  far 
from  tobacco's  being  a  protection  against  such  dis- 
eases, it  is  the  opinion  of  many  eminent  doctors  that, 
by  enfeebling  the  system,  it  renders  men  more  sus- 
ceptible to  this  as  well  as  other  diseases. 

AIDING   DIGESTION. 

Dr.  Alcott  :  "I  have  never  known  a  dozen 
tobacco-users  —  my  acquaintance  has  extended  to 
thousands  —  whose  digestive  organs  were  not  in 
the  end  more  or  less  impaired  by  it." 

Dr.  Grimshaw  :  "  Tobacco  is  injurious  by 
depressing  the  nervous  powers,  by  injuring  the 
salivary  glands,  and  by  creating  an  undue  secretion 
of  saliva." 

Dr.  Harris  of  the  New  York  Dispensary :  — 
"The  functions  of  digestion  and  nutrition  are 
impaired ;  and  though,  in  some  cases,  tobacco  may 
for  a  time  appear  to  relieve  irritability  of  the 
stomach,  it  eventually  cripples  and  almost  destroys 
the  digestive  powers." 

QUIETING   THE   NERVES. 

The  answer  to  this  plea  is  found  in  the  evidences 
which  have  been  adduced  to  prove  that,  however 
soothing  may  be  its  temporary  influence,  the  ulti- 
mate effect  is  the  exhaustion  and  shattering  of  the 
nervous  system. 


102  TOBACCO. 


AN   ANTISEPTIC  ;    PRESERVING   OF   THE   TEETH. 

"  Tobacco-smoke  is  not  a  vile,  noxious  exhala- 
tion," declares  someone.  "  It  does  not  contaminate 
the  air,  but  tends  to  purity  it.  It  is  an  antiseptic 
principle,  taking  up  and  destroying  poisons  in  the 
air." 

As  to  the  remarkable  negative  assertion  in  the 
above  passage,  let  it  be  referred  to  those  whose 
senses  have  not  been  impaired  by  the  use  of  the 
weed.  Just  what  the  writer  means  by  terming 
tobacco-smoke  "  a  principle  "  one  can  only  guess. 
But  what  of  the  benefit  he  claims  ? 

It  has  been  my  great  aim  to  prove  that  tobacco 
4n  all  its  forms —  snuffing,  chewing,  and  smoking, 
—  is  poisonous.  If  the  proofs  are  not  convincing, 
let  them  be  challenged.  But  I  make  my  appeal  to 
Caesar. 

As  to  preserving  the  teeth,  the  claim  was  utterly 
denied  by  Dr.  "Warren,  of  Boston,  who  asserted 
that  it  was  positively  injurious  to  them. 

In  order  to  treat  this  subject  with  entire  candor, 
I  have  written  to  a  good  number  of  eminent 
dentists.  From  their  uniformly  kind  and  cour- 
teous replies  I  will  quote  several  passages,  giving 
the  names  when  at  liberty  to  do  so. 

Dr.  French,  of  Rochester,  New  York,  while 
himself  a  smoker,  and  claiming  that  tobacco  is 
antiseptic,  states,  in  the  Odontography  Journal, 
that  a  physician  for  whom  he  was  operating 
called  his  attention  to  certain  teeth  which  were  de- 


TOBACCO  BENEFITS.  103 

cayed  at  the  neck  of  the  roots,  and  which  he 
asserted  to  be  caused  by  tobacco,  as  that  was 
where  he  always  carried  the  weed. 

Another  gentleman,  having  the  same  difficulty 
pointed  out,  said  to  Dr.  French,  "  That  is  where  I 
used  to  carry  my  tobacco  ;  I  have  used  it  for  forty 
years,  but  have  quit  now." 

"I  may  add,"  continues  Dr.  F.,  "that  I  have 
smoked  for  thirty  years,  and  the  upper  tooth  where 
I  always  hold  my  cigar  lost  its  vitality  live  or  six 
years  ago,  but  the  lower  one  is  perfectly  sound. 
A  friend  who  is  an  inveterate  smoker  has  lost 
entirely,  by  gradual  crumbling,  the  upper  tooth 
where  he  held  his  cigar,  while  the  lower  one  is  all 
right." 

"  In  regard  to  the  beneficial  tendencies,  there  is 
nothing  which  the  use  of  the  brush  and  proper 
dentifrice  would  not  accomplish." 

"The  salivary  and  mucous  glands  are  debili- 
tated, and  the  gums  and  other  soft  tissues  of  the 
mouth  are  irritated,  inflamed,  and  debased  by  the 
over-stimulation  of  the  constant  use  of  tobacco." 

Dr.  Barrett,  of  Buffalo  :  "  Tobacco  is  undoubt- 
edly antiseptic  in  the  mouth,  but  I  am  inclined  to 
think  that  the  remedy  is  worse  than  the  disease. 
I  am  given  to  smoking  myself,  but  it  keeps  the 
mouth  in  an  unhealthy  condition." 

Dr.  Barnes,  of  New  York :  "  Chewing  tobacco 
removes  particles  of  food,  and  smoking  often  adds 
a  coating  over  softened  portions,  thereby  rendering 
them  less  liable  to  caries.     But  Ave  have  plenty  of 


104  TOBACCO. 

remedies  more  cleanly  and  wholesome.*'  Br.  B. 
names  a  case  where  smoking  prevented  toothache, 
but  irives  the  smoker's  remark  that  the  effect  was 
bad,  as  it  stupefied  the  nerve,  thus  giving  him  no 
warning  of  danger,  the  breaking  of  the  teeth  being 
his  first  knowledge  of  trouble.  Dr.  B.  adds,  "  To 
my  mind,  the  disadvantages  greatly  overwhelm 
the  advantages." 

Dr.  Lillebrown,  of  Boston  :  "  Tobacco  chewing, 
by  causing  a  free  flow  of  saliva,  washes  the  teeth. 
But  no  benefit  can  even  secondarily  compensate 
for  the  uncleanness  of  the  habit." 

Dr.  J.  Foster  Flagg,  of  Philadelphia  :  M  Indirect- 
ly tobacco  is,  I  think,  advantageous  to  the  teeth  in 
cases  of  rapid  decay,  especially  when  complicated 
with  pulpsensitivity.  But  the  disadvantages  in- 
separably associated  with  its  use,  are  of  such  mag- 
nitude as  to  make  with  me,  the  advice  or  even 
permission  to  employ  it,  a  matter  of  grave  moment 
and  intense  reluctance." 

Dr.  Chandler,  of  the  Dental  Department  in 
Harvard  University :  "  I  am  no  believer  in  the 
preservative  qualities  of  tobacco  upon  the  teeth. 
On  the  contrary,  in  so  far  as  the  use  of  it  injures 
the  health,  and  thereby  vitiates  the  oral  secretions, 
it  must  be  directly  injurious.  There  is  no  doubt, 
however,  that  smoking  in  excess,  and  perhaps  also 
chewing,  blunts  the  sensitiveness  of  the  teeth  both 
directly  and  indirectly,  by  its  stupefying  proper- 
ties, so  that  they  can  be  worked  upon  with  less 
pain ;  but  I  consider  this  no  compensation  for  the 


TOBACCO   BENEFITS.  105 

Hastiness  consequent  upon  indulgence  in  the  vile 
habit." 

The  remainder  of  the  extracts  from  letters  on 
this  point  are  by  physicians,  not  dentists. 

Dr.  Heitzman,  of  New  York  :  "  Being  a  hearty 
smoker  myself,  I  can  assure  you  that  tobacco 
smoke  has  no  beneficial  effect  upon  the  teeth.  In 
my  case,  it  did  not  work  as  a  disinfectant."  Dr. 
H.  is  candid  enough  to  pronounce  smoking 
"a  vicious  though  delightful  habit.'' 

Dr.  T.  F.  Allen,  of  New  York:  "  The  state- 
ment that  tobacco  is  antiseptic,  is  I  think,  simply 
ridiculous.  There  is  no  doubt  that  creosote,  or 
rather  the  products  of  combustion  in  smoking,  have 
an  antiseptic  effect ;  but  the  same  effect  would  be 
produced  by  burning  paper,  cabbage-leaves,  or 
anything  else  of  the  sort." 

Dr.  Cate,  of  Lakewood  :  "  No  authority  on  sanita- 
tion or  disinfection,  whether  medical  or  non-medi- 
cal, classes  tobacco  among  disinfectants,  or  anti- 
septics, or  protectives  in  any  mode  or  degree  ;  and 
those  who  have  written  most,  and  most  vigorously, 
against  the  use  of  tobacco,  are  physicians.  To- 
bacco is,  confessedly  on  all  hands,  not  only  a  drug, 
but  a  very  powerful  narcotic.  And  there  is  a 
universal  law  that  the  use  of  any  drug  in  health  is 
always  mischievous. 

"It  is  the  doctrine  of  the  day  that  ferments  are 
not  only  accompanied  but  caused  by  minute 
organisms,  and  that  any  agent  killing  these,  or  their 
spores,  will  remove  or  prevent  fermentation.     As 


106  TOBACCO. 

tobacco  is  a  narcotic  poison,  it  will  certainly  des- 
troy these  organisms  or  their  germs.  So  will 
kerosene,  carbolic  acid,  and  other  strong  acids. 
But  no  one  regards  these  things  as  wholesome  when 
taken  into  the  system.  The  effect  sought  is  local, 
and  only  their  local  use  is  justifiable.  The  per- 
spiration of  old  tobacco  users  is  so  saturated  with 
nicotine  that  it  will  destroy  the  life  of  flies  precisely 
by  the  same  poisonous  properties  by  which  it  des- 
troys fungi  in  the  secretions  of  the  mouth ;  and 
there  is  no  more  wisdom  in  poisoning  the  whole 
body  in  order  to  destroy  caries  fungi  of  the  teeth 
than  there  would  be  in  setting  up  our  bodies  as 
manufactories  of  fly-poison  to  destroy  flies  in  our 
rooms.  Any  fungicide  can  unquestionably  be 
used  more  efficiently  as  well  as  harmlessly  with 
the  brush  and  by  rinsing  the  mouth  than  when 
taken  into  the  stomach  and  lungs.  I  believe 
that  no  physiologist  can,  or  does  deduce  from  the 
general  laws  of  health  and  disease  any  conclusion 
but  that  the  use  of  tobacco  in  every  form  is  mis- 
chievous." 

HELPFUL     STIMULANT. 

In  regard  to  the  arguments  of  those  who  have 
raised  the  lance  in  defence  of  tobacco  as  a  helpful 
stimulant,  quoting  Dr.  Anstie  and  his  followers,  I 
have  taken  pains  to  consult  many  wise  ones,  and 
will  report  from  high  authority  a  brief  reply  to 
this  defence. 

"Physiologists  and  the  medical  profession  gen- 
erally accept    as   axioms  the   principles    that   in 


TOBACCO  BENEFITS.  107 

small  doses  all  the  narcotics  represented  by  opium, 
tobacco,  the  deadly  nightshade,  strychnine,  and 
other  similar  drugs,  are  stimulants,  not  tonics,  that 
is,  in  these  small  doses,  they  increase  the  rate  of 
action,  or  living,  without  adding  to  the  strength  or 
means  of  living;  that  the  decree  of  stimulation 
varies  in  different  members  of  the  group  of 
narcotics,  it  being  very  slight  and  transient  in 
tobacco,  the  r  soothing,'  or  narcotic  effect  being 
the  result  usually  sought  and  speedily  reached ; 
that  the  assertion  that '  food  and  stimulus  are  equally 
indispensable '  is  a  monstrous  fallacy ;  that  any 
drug  stimulation  in  health  is  unnecessary  and 
mischievous ;  that  all  such  stimulation  is  followed 
by  a  gradual  loss  of  healthful  vigor  in  the  tissues 
and  the  organs  involved;  and  that  while  these 
effects  may  accumulate  slowly,  the  aggregate  re- 
sults of  many  years  of  even  moderate  indulgence 
is  almost  invariably  seen  in  broken  health  and 
lessened  efficiency,  as  well  as  in  the  presence  of 
positive  disease." 

In  reply  to  the  claim  that  tobacco  stimulates  the 
mental  powers,  Dr.  Harris  writes :  "  A  moderate 
indulgence  may,  for  a  brief  period,  enliven  the 
imagination,  accelerate  the  thoughts,  and  give  a 
pleasing  sense  of  intellectual  vigor,  but,  under 
such  unnatural  stimulus,  the  intellect  works  neither 
reliably  nor  safely ;  and  the  reaction  and  stupor 
which  necessarily  succeed,  more  than  counterbal- 
ance the  largest  measure  even  of  apparent  gain. 
And  he  who  resorts  to  such  expedients  will  soon 


108  TOBACCO. 

find  that  not  only  has  be  been  fascinated  and  de- 
ceived, but  that  he  has  literally  sold  himself  into  a 
physical  and  mental  bondage,  from  which  escape 
is  almost  impossible." 

CHECKING    WASTE    OF   TISSUE. 

As  to  anything  more  in  favor  of  tobacco,  justice 
requires  me  to  admit  that  I  have  learned  of  still 
one  other  benefit.  It  is  that  w  by  checking  mole- 
cular waste  of  tissue,  that  is.  by  retarding  organic 
metamorphosis,  the  adult  is  able  to  maintain  his 
physical  integrity."'  This  very  effect,  however,  is 
admitted  to  be  ?f  detrimental  to  the  adolescent,  since 
it  retards  that  progressive  cell-change  upon  which 
the  advanced  development  of  the  body  depends." 

I  am  not  wise  enough  to  apprehend  the  rtole 
force  of  this  argument,  though  I  should  have  sup- 
posed that  anything  which  retards  nature's  pro- 
cesses would,  except  in  abnormal  cases,  prove  in 
the  end  a  loss  rather  than  a  gain.  We  learn  from 
physiologists  that  rapid  waste  and  repair  of  tissues 
are  a  natural  result  of  action,  and  the  best  condition 
of  health  :  while  suspension  is  unnatural  and  in  vio- 
lation of  hygienic  laws.  It  is  this  fact  that  renders 
exercise  and  open  air  life  so  desirable ;  that  sends 
invalids  and  worn-out  people  in  such  throngs  to 
the  seaside,  the  mountains  and  the  woods.  Except 
in  cases  of  famine,  therefore,  any  obstruction  to  the 
removal  of  effete  matter  would  seem  an  injury 
rather  than  a  benefit. 

The  claim  of  gain  on  the  score  of  economy,  from 


TOBACCO   BENEFITS.  109 

less  food  being  required  by  this  checking  of  the 
waste  of  tissue,  reminds  one  of  Mr.  Squeer's  cus- 
tom in  Dotheboys  Hall  of  dosing  his  boys  every 
morning  with  sulphur  and  treacle,  in  order  to 
limit  their  capacity  for  eating. 

We  find  it  complacently  stated  in  the  public 
prints  that,  "as  the  result  of  investigations  recently 
made,  the  professors  of  the  University  of  Jena 
affirm  that  moderate  quantities  of  this  weed  may 
be  used  with  beneficial  effects  ;  that  in  the  German 
army  soldiers  in  active  service  are  very  properly 
furnished  with  smoking  tobacco,  because  smoking 
enables  them  to  endure  severe  fatigue  upon  smaller 
nutrition  and  with  greater  alacrity  and  confidence 
than  would  otherwise  be  the  case."  The  ultimate 
influence  of  tobacco  upon  the  muscular  force  has 
been  already  considered,  K  the  greater  alacrity  and 
confidence"  being  but  transient  effects  of  the  nar- 
cotic, as  they  are  also  of  brandy  and  whiskey. 

Dr.  Richardson:  "If  smoking  sustains  the  sys- 
tem longer  without  food,  it  does  it  by  reducing 
the  activity  of  all  the  organs,  and  therewith  the 
organic  power." 

In  answer  to  inquiries,  Dr.  John  Ellis  writes : 
"I  suppose,  without  any  reasonable  doubt,  that 
tobacco,  like  opium  and  some  other  substances, 
does  actually  retard  the  waste,  and  thereby  the 
nourishment  of  the  tissues ;  but  this  is  really  one 
of  the  chief  objections  against  its  use,  for  it  is 
exactly  ivhat  we  do  not  wdnt  to  do,  since  the  health 
and  strength  depend  on,  or  are  intimately  associ- 


110  TOBACCO. 

ated  with,  the  regularity  and  rapidity  of  this  meta- 
morphosis of  the  tissues." 

Dr.  Willard  Parker,  from  whom  I  have  already 
quoted  so  freely,  asserts  that  there  is  no  occasion 
for  this  talked-of  arrest  of  waste,  except  for  the 
starving,  and  affirms  that  free  waste  and  renewal 
are  among  the  most  essential  hygienic  conditions. 
f?  Where  the  processes  of  waste  and  of  repairs  are 
maintained  in  balance."  he  says,  "the  system  is 
in  its  normal  state,  or  in  health.  Disturb  the 
balance,  and  disease  commences.  Every  system 
is  worked  by  force,  and  this  is  the  one  cause  of 
waste.  Diminish  waste,  and  you  diminish  force. 
The  work  of  all  poisons  is  to  diminish  force.  Now, 
if  tobacco  diminishes  waste,  it  is  because  it  dimin- 
ishes force,  and  so  far  marches  toward  death.  Let 
us  have  no  more  of  such  sophistry." 

In  conversing  on  the  subject,  Dr.  Parker  made 
use  of  an  illustration  which  I  will  give  in  my  own 
words  :  I  have  a  house  which  will  accommodate 
five  persons.  Every  day  I  take  in  five  and 
every  day  send  out  the  same  number,  and  the 
house  is  in  good  condition.  But  I  take  in  five  and 
send  out  three,  and  the  condition  is  disturbed.  I 
take  in  five  more,  but  must  push  aside  the  two 
dead  to  make  room  for  the  incoming  five.  I  now 
send  out  two,  and  have  three  more  dead  to  pile  up 
with  the  former  two.  How  long  will  the  dwelling 
be  inhabitable?  It  is  already  a  sick-house.  The 
dead  avIio  are  retained  are  not  only  no  addition  to 
the  strength  of  the  house,  but  are  a  positive  ob- 
struction, a  source  of  disease  and  death. 


TOBACCO   BENEFITS.  Ill 

In  the  same  strain  Dr.  Cate  writes  :  "  If  the 
change  is  no  more  rapid  than  in  health,  it  is  a  phy- 
siological, not  a  diseased  process ;  it  is  one  of  a 
chain  of  interlinked  and  interdepending  processes 
which  cannot  be  interfered  with  without  upsetting 
the  beautifully  contrived  balance,  and  leading  to 
mischievous  results.  Every  physiologist  knows 
that  the  use  and  wear  exactly  correspond ;  that 
you  cannot  diminish  one  without  diminishing  the 
other.  All  narcotics  diminish  the  energy  of  all  the 
functions  of  every  organ.  They  lessen  the  vigor 
and  amount  of  the  work  done,  and  exactly  to  this 
extent  diminish  the  waste.  Going  beyond  certain 
narrow  limits,  the  result  is  far  worse,  —  they  act 
so  powerfully  on  every  organ  and  function  that  the 
derangement  amounts  to  disease,  the  power  of  doing 
healthy  work  is  lost,  and  not  only  the  waste,  but 
repair  is  decidedly  diminished.  The  difficulty 
after  youth  is  not  that  waste  is  unduly  active,  but 
that  repair  is  too  little  so.  It  follows  that,  instead 
of  diminishing  waste  by  diminishing  through  nar- 
cotics the  energy  of  brain  and  body,  and  hence  the 
amount  of  work  done,  the  increase  of  the  repara- 
tive energy  is  the  needed  power  in  advancing 
years. 

"Every  physiologist  accepts  the  law  that  with 
every  thought,  with  every  emotion,  with  every 
throb  of  the  heart,  with  every  movement  of  a  mus- 
cle, with  every  step  in  the  process  of  digestion, 
there  is  waste  of  tissue  in  exact  and  inevitable 
correlation  to  the  amount  of  work  done ;  and  this 


112  TOBACCO. 

waste  can  only  be  diminished  by  diminishing  action 
or  production.  It  is  like  the  consumption  of  fuel 
and  the  production  of  heat.  It  is  easy  to  diminish 
the  draft  of  the  furnace  or  engine,  and  so  the  con- 
sumption of  fuel ;  but  the  production  of  heat  is 
diminished  in  the  same  proportion.  This  is  pre- 
cisely what  is  done  to  the  functions  of  the  body 
by  narcotics,  including  tobacco.  They  lower  the 
vigor  and  energy  of  every  organ,  and  so  its  pro- 
duction, and  in  the  same  desrree  the  waste. 

"I  believe  this  is  the  correct  statement  of  the 
action  of  tobacco  in  the  much  talked-of  relation 
to  waste  :  that  from  the  scientific  standpoint  these 
conclusions  are  inevitable  ;  and  that  from  the  medi- 
cal, the  experience  of  ninety-nine  out  of  a  hundred 
of  the  profession  clearly  affirms  their  truth." 

I  am  aware  that  Dr.  Tanner's  endurance  under 
his  Ions:  fast  is  accounted  for  bv  the  sustaining 
virtues  of  tissue.  And  the  same  advantage,  result- 
ing, it  is  said,  from  the  use  of  tobacco — that  it 
tends  to  prevent  the  destruction  of  tissue — is 
urged  for  the  use  of  wine  and  spirits.  To  this, 
as  argued  in  the  Saturday  Review,  Punch  re- 
sponds :  — 

"  Oh,  thanks,  dear  Review,  for  that  comforting  creed, 
For  joining  with  temperance-humhug  the  issue  ; 
In  Johnson  and  Webster  in  future  we'll  read 
For  'drinking,'  'preventing  destruction  of  tissue.' 

"  O  Daniel  in  judgment!  for  teaching  that  word 

You  cannot  conceive  what  good  fortune  we  wish  you. 
Punch  fills  up  a  bumper,  the  downy  old  bird, 
And  'prevents,'  in  your  honor,  'destruction  of  tissue.'" 


TOBACCO   BENEFITS.  113 


BENEFITING    ADULTS. 

A  well-known  physician,  himself  a  smoker, 
while  he  pronounces  tobacco  "highly  injurious  to 
persons  whose  nervous  systems  are  not  developed, 
or  to  women,  who  naturally  have  more  delicate 
nervous  organizations  than  men,"  avows  that  he 
believes  it  is  beneficial  to  most  adults. 

Another  physician  of  high  standing,  himself  a 
non-smoker,  affirms  that,  at  the  very  least,  three 
fourths  of  the  profession  are  against  this  view  of 
said  doctor;  that  his  utterances,  as  reported, 
amount  to  two  arguments :  First,  that,  using  it 
himself,  he  justifies  its  use ;  second,  that  there  is 
in  adult  life  a  comparative  tolerance  of  all  nar- 
cotics, but  that  it  is  only  a  question  of  more  or  less 
poisonous  influence.  He  adds  that  the  very  asser- 
tions made  to  defend  its  use  are  significant, — 
"  cigarettes  are  more  mischievous  than  cigars  ;  " 
"  the  effect  of  tobacco  is  much  worse  on  young 
men  than  on  adults ;"  "  chewing  has  a  far  more 
deleterious  influence  on  the  digestive  system  than 
smoking,"  and  other  similar  expressions. 

There  is  in  these  arguments  of  smokers  some- 
thing passing  one's  comprehension. 

"Tobacco,  by  exciting  the  secretions  of  saliva, 
excites  the  secretions  of  gastric  juice;"  ergo, 
"used  after  dinner,  it  promotes  the  digestion  of 
the  adult." 

"Tobacco,  by  exciting  unnaturally  the  secretions 
of  saliva,  impairs  the  digestion  of  the  young." 


114  TOBACCO. 

The  boy  of  our  age  does  not  accept  this  logic. 
He  cannot  comprehend  why  that  which  is  of  such 
service  to  the  adult  should  be  so  injurious  to  him. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  at  what  precise 
point  this  remarkable  change  occurs  in  the  diges- 
tive organs,  to  draw  a  definite  line  between  a  boy 
and  a  man.  Does  the  change  take  place  in  the 
substance  of  the  organs,  or  their  form,  or  what? 
One  is  tempted  to  ask  the  question,  which  I  trust 
is  not  irreverent,  Can  one  who  avowedly  indulges 
in  the  nightly  smoking  of  "five  or  six  moderately 
strong  cigars,"  and  declares  that  he  is  a  "wiser, 
better,  and  happier  man  for  it,"  can  such  an  one, 
even  though  both  medical  and  scientific,  be  pre- 
sumed to  judge  impartially? 

At  one  stage  a  poison,  and  at  another  a  promoter 
of  wisdom,  morality,  and  happiness!  Surely,  it  is 
of  the  utmost  importance  to  learn  the  exact  mo- 
ment when  the  peril  ceases  and  the  advantage 
begins. 

Now,  is  there  not  a  sort  of  ohfuscation  in  such 
reasoning  that  only  tobacco-fumes  could  occasion? 
According  to  Dr.  Cate,  the  non-smoking  physician 
just  quoted,  the  stimulation  to  the  secretion  of 
saliva  and  gastric  juice  is  a  strong  argument 
against  tobacco,  and  as  really  so  for  adults  as  for 
youth.  He  goes  on,  —  "The  sight  and  taste  of 
food  and  the  act  of  eating  are  physiological 
stimulants  to  the  glands  concerned  in  digestion, 
exactly  fitted  to  the  sufficient  performance  of  this 
office ;  and  the   assertion  that  these   glands  need 


TOBACCO    BENEFITS.  115 

stimulation  in  health  by  tobacco  or  any  other  drug 
is  a  monstrous  and  mischievous  fallacy." 

We  may  therefore  infer  that  the  way  in  which 
tobacco  aids  the  digestion  is  just  as  brandy  and 
whiskey  do  it,  — that  is,  by  narcotizing  and  deaden- 
ing the  pangs  of  a  dyspeptic  stomach,  only,  in  the 
end,  however,  to  make  it  more  and  more  incapable 
of  its  proper  work. 

The  most  zealous  defenders  of  tobacco  admit 
that  some  adults  are  poisoned  by  it.  But  how  are 
men  to  decide  whether  it  is  a  blessing  or  a  bane, 
till  they  have  tried  it?  And  alas!  by  the  time 
they  have  got  over  the  disagreeable  introduction 
and  made  a  fair  acquaintance,  the  spell  is  on  them. 
By  that  time  they  will  be  slow  to  admit  that  its 
effect  is  injurious ;  and,  even  if  convinced  of  this, 
what  about  breaking  the  spell?  Has  it  been 
found  so  easy  that  you  can  conscientiously  advise 
your  adult  friend,  or  brother,  or  son,  to  make  the 
experiment  ? 

But  even  should  it  be  admitted  that  that  which 
is  disastrous  to  most  might  possibly  bring  to  a 
very  few  some  small  gain,  the  question  arises, — 
when  the  good  proposed  is  so  uncertain  and  so 
slight,  and  the  evils  are  so  great,  and  often  so  fatal, 
and  when  all  are  agreed  that  the  habit  should  not 
be  formed  in  youth,  does  it  pay  to  form  it  in 
mature  life?  It  is,  unfortunately,  a  habit  that  will 
not  stand  still,  but  rather  makes  perpetual 
encroachments.  If  the  smoker  has  a  difficult 
physical  or  mental  task  to  perform,  he  seeks  his 


116  TOBACCO. 

cigar;  if  8  burden  weighs  heavily,  he  takes  to  his 
cigar  ;  and  thus,  as  occasions  multiply,  his  smoking 
is  more  frequent  and  prolonged,  till  at  length  it 
becomes  an  imperious  necessity,  against  which, 
bitterly  as  he  may  regret  it,  he  has  no  nerve  to 
contend.  Or,  perhaps,  under  some  crushing  blow, 
he  surrenders  absolutely  to  the  tyrant,  and  dies 
its  victim. 

Xow,  why  should  he  venture  at  all  on  this 
enchanted  ground?  Besides,  as  the  very  atmos- 
phere of  the  noxious  weed  is  not  only  extremely 
offensive,  but  positively  injurious  to  many,  and 
moreover,  since  the  example  of  the  moderate  user 
is  an  incentive  to  the  young  to  follow  in  his  steps, 
will  not  the  broad  law  of  divine  charity  lead  him 
to  sacrifice  the  small  and  doubtful  good,  thereby 
to  save  others  from  incalculable  harm? 

A  beautiful  illustration  of  this  law  of  charity 
is  the  case  of  the  well-known  philanthropist, 
S.  V.  S.  Wilder,  who  was  a  snuff-taker.  When 
asked  by  a  brandy-drinker,  with  whom  he  had 
been  expostulating  on  his  habit,  whether  he 
thought  tobacco  did  him  any  good,  Mr.  Wilder 
explained  that  he  took  snuff  by  the  prescription 
of  his  physician  for  feeble  eyes.  "Well,  sir," 
responded  the  gentleman,  "your  case  is  exactly 
like  mine.  I  have  a  feeble  stomach,  and  have 
long  been  compelled  to  take  an  occasional  drop  of 
spirits  for  its  relief  and  restoration."  "Is  it 
possible,"  Mr.  Wilder  asked  himself,  frthat  my 
taking  snuff  should  serve  as  a  pretext  for  drunk- 


TOBACCO  BENEFITS.  117 

ards  to  ruin  both  body  and  soul  ?  "  And  the  good 
man  instantly  abandoned  his  habit. 

The  following,  from  the  Boston  Evening  Journal, 
bears  on  the  assertion  that  tobacco  lessens  the 
power  of  endurance  :  "According  to  Lieut.  Gree- 
ly's  account  of  the  nineteen  men  who  perished " 
(in  the  Lady  Franklin  Bay  Expedition)  "all  but 
one  were  smokers,  and  that  one  was  the  last  to  die. 
The  seven  survivors  were  non-smoking  men." 

To  make  sure  of  the  correctness  of  this  report, 
a  letter  of  inquiry  was  sent  to  Lieut.  Greely. 
His  reply  substantially  confirms  it,  except  on  a 
single  point,  which  is  that  one  of  the  seven  rescued 
was  an  inveterate  tobacco-chewer.  Candor  re- 
quires this  correction,  whatever  inference  the 
devotees  of  the  weed  may  be  inclined  to  draw 
from  it.  The  lieutenant  closes  his  letter  by 
saying :  "  That  no  undue  weight  may  be  given 
to  the  facts,  I  add  that  the  seven  rescued  were 
all  temperate  in  eating  and  drinking." 

PROMOTING    SOCIABILITY. 

Man  is  pronounced  an  unsocial  being,  and  it  is 
claimed  that  smoking  is  the  antidote  for  this.  In 
olden  times,  it  was  supposed  that  women  were  the 
great  promoters  of  sociability.  But  this  impres- 
sion must  have  been  a  mistake.  The  fact  seems 
to  be  that  their  presence  is  an  incubus  on  the  spir- 
its of  mankind,  so  that,  after  dinner,  they  are  ex- 
pected to  withdraw,  and  allow  gentlemen,  through 
their  cigars,  to  have  a  good,  social  time. 


118  TOBACCO. 

This  is,  certainly,  an  important  advantage  and 
worthy  of  cultivation  in  other  directions.  There  is 
frequent  complaint  of  the  formal,  unsocial  prayer 
meetings  in  the  church.  We  all  are  familiar 
with  the  long,  painful  silences  when  no  one  has 
anything  to  say.  Strange  that  some  one  has  not, 
at  this  juncture,  introduced  cigars  to  loosen  the 
tongues  of  the  silent  brethren !  The  only  awk- 
ward thing  about  it  would  be  the  presence  of  the 
sisters.  One  would  hardly  like  to  turn  them  out 
of  the  meeting,  even  for  the  sake  of  greater  free- 
dom among  the  brethren.  Besides,  on  these  occa- 
sions the  spell  of  silence  is  on  the  sisters  also. 
Why  not  set  them  to  smoking  likewise,  thus  secur- 
ing a  lively  prayer  meeting  ? 

The  great  question  as  to  the  promotion  of  soci- 
ability by  the  tobacco  habit  is  —  Does  it  pay  ? 
Taking  into  account  the  trespassing  on  good  man- 
ners which  is  inevitable  to  the  most  gentlemanly 
assemblege  of  smokers,  and  the  tendency  to  a 
disintegration  of  society  by  the  separation  between 
man  and  woman  that  it  necessitates,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  physical,  mental,  and  moral  results  of  the 
habit,  I  emphasize  the  question : — Does  it  pay? 


SOCIAL  AND  ESTHETIC  VIEW. 


OLD-TIME   VIEW   OF   TOBACCO. 

In  our  search  for  the  pedigree  of  smokers,  we  sail 
up  the  stream  of  time  till  we  cast  anchor  in  1499, 
where,  —  as  Columbus,  lying  off  Cuba,  sent  two 
men  ashore,  —  we  put  our  linger  upon  the  record 
of  their  right  honorable  ancestry,  — to  wit,  —  M  Hie 
naked  savages  twist  large  leaves  together ■,  light  one 
end  at  thejire,  and  smoke  like  devils." 

In  1535,  Cartier  writes  of  Canada, — "Where 
grows  a  certain  kind  of  herbe,  whereof  in  summer 
they  make  provision  for  all  the  yeere,  and  only 
men  use  it,  and  first  they  cause  it  to  be  dried  in 
the  sunne,  then  weare  it  on  their  necks  wrapped 
in  a  beaste's  skinn,  made  like  a  little  bagge,  with 
a  hollow  piece  of  stone  or  wood  like  a  pipe  ;  then 
when  they  please  they  make  powder  of  it,  and  then 
put  it  in  one  of  the  ends  of  said  cornets  or  pipes, 
laying  a  coal  of  fire  upon  it,  and  at  the  other  end 
smoke  so  long  that  they  fill  their  bodies  full  of 
smoke,  till  that  it  comes  out  at  their  mouth  and 
nostrils,  even  as  out  of  the  tonnele  of  a  chimney." 

119 


120  TOBACCO. 

In  1576  was  born  one  Robert  Burton,  who,  in 
his  Anatomy  of  Melancholy,  discriminatingly  says 
of  tobacco,  M  A  good  vomit,  a  virtuous  herb,  if  it 
be  well  qualified,  opportunely  taken,  and  medici- 
nally used  ;  but  as  it  is  commonly  abused  by  most 
men,  which  take  it  as  tinkers  do  ale,  'tis  a  plague, 
a  mischief,  a  violent  purger  of  goods,  lands,  health  ; 
hellish,  devilish,  and  damned  tobacco,  the  ruin  of 
body  and  soul." 

This  arrogant  pretender  which  in  our  advanced 
period  of  civilization  and  culture  is  admitted  into 
the  first  society,  was  received,  in  the  old  days 
of  comparative  barbarism,  with  marked  disfavor. 
Soon  after  its  introduction  into  the  Eastern  Conti- 
nent, it  was  prohibited  in  various  countries.  Phy- 
sicians pronounced  it  injurious,  priests  denounced 
it  as  sinful,  and  princes  enacted  laws  against  it. 

It  was  not,  however, from  mere  aesthetic  consider- 
ations that  it  was  thus,  in  those  olden  times,  put 
under  the  ban  by  physicians,  priests,  and  poten- 
tates, but  because  of  its  effects  in  deteriorating 
and  depleting  the  population. 

Any  Turk  caught  smoking  was  conducted 
through  the  streets  with  a  pipe-stem  transfixed 
through  his  nose,  and  later,  the  Sultan  made  the 
act  a  capital  offence. 

In  Russia,  the  first  offence  was  punished  with 
the  bastinado,  the  second  with  the  loss  of  the  nose, 
and  the  third,  with  the  loss  of  life. 

The  Shah  of  Persia  made  the  use  of  the  drug  a 
capital  crime,  and  proclaimed  that  "  every  soldier 


SOCIAL    AND   ESTHETIC    VIEW.  121 

in  whose  possession  tobacco  was  found  should 
have  his  nose  and  lips  cut  off,  and  afterwards  be 
burned  alive." 

In  Switzerland,  children  ran  after  the  offenders, 
innkeepers  were  ordered  to  report  those  who 
smoked  in  their  houses,  and  all  transgressors  were 
cited  before  the  Council  and  punished. 

In  1624  Pope  Urban  VIII.  issued  a  bull  excom- 
municating all  who  took  snuff  in  church,  while 
the  Empress  Elizabeth  authorized  the  beadles  to 
confiscate  the  snuff-boxes  to  their  own  use.  In 
1690  Pope  Innocent  renewed  the  bull  of  excom- 
munication. 

It  is  related  that  Frederic  the  Great,  at  the  cor- 
onation of  his  mother  as  Queen  of  Prussia,  observ- 
ing that  she  watched  her  opportunity  to  take  a 
pinch  of  snuff,  sent  a  gentleman  to  remind  her  of 
what  was  due  to  her  high  position. 

Queen  Elizabeth  of  England  published  an  edict 
against  its  use,  "  as  a  demoralizing  vice,  tending  to 
reduce  her  subjects  to  the  condition  of  those 
savages  whose  habits  they  imitated." 

Her  successor,  King  James,  took  still  stronger 
ground.  About  five  years  after  the  Common  Version 
of  the  Bible  was  made,  appeared  his  Counterblast  to 
Tobacco,  in  which  the  royal  writer  indignantly 
launches  forth  :  "  Moreover,  which  is  a  great  in- 
iquity  and  against  all  humanity,  the  husband  shall 
not  be  ashamed  to  raise  his  delicate,  wholesome, 
and  clear-complexioned  wife  to  that  extremity  that 
she  must  also  corrupt  her  sweet  breath  therewith, 


122  TOBACCO. 

or  else  resolve  to  live  in  a  perpetual torment. 

Have  you  not  reason,  then,  to  be  ashamed,  and  to 
forbear  this  filthy  novelty,  so  basely  grounded, 
so  foolishly  received,  and  so  grossly  mistaken  in 
the  right  use  thereof?  —  a  custom  loathsome  to  the 
eye,  hateful  to  the  nose,  dangerous  to  the  lungs, 
and  in  the  black,  stinking  fume  thereof,  nearest 
resembling  the  Stygian  smoke  of  the  pit  that  is 
bottomless  ?  " 

w  See  the  works  of  the  most  high  and  mighty 
Prince  James,  by  the  grace  of  God,  King  of  Great 
Britain,  1616."  * 

"We  find  recorded  four  years  after  this  Counter- 
blast,  a  remarkable  fact,  viz.  :  that  in  1620,  The 
London  Company  exported  to  the  Colony  at 
Jamestown  ninety  poor,  but  respectable  women, 
who  were  sold  to  the  planters  at  the  rate,  one  to 
each,  of  a  hundred  and  twenty  pounds  of  tobacco 
worth  sixty  cents  a  pound,  the  value  of  a  wife 
being  thus  estimated  at  seventy-two  dollars.  The 
following  year,  another  batch  of  wives  was  sent 
over  and  sold  at  a  slight  advance. 

The  tobacco  policy  of  the  Bay  State  Colony 
was  entirely  different. 

When  the  Puritans  came  to  Boston  in  1630,  it 
was  under  the  following  instructions. 

"  We  specially  desire  you  to  take  care  that  no 
tobacco  be  planted  by  any  of  the  planters  under 
your  government,  unless  it  be  some  small  quantity 
for  mere  necessity,  and  for  physic,  and  that  the  same 
be  taken  privately  by  ancient  men,  and  none  other, 


SOCIAL   AND   ^ESTHETIC   VIEW.  123 

and  to  make  a  general  restraint  thereof  as  much  as 
in  you  is." 

In  Prince's  Annals  of  New  England  we  find 
that  a  similar  public  sentiment  was  embodied  in 
the  laws  of  this  colony.  In  1632  it  was  "  Ordered, 
That  no  person  shall  take  any  tobacco  publicly ,  and 
that  everyone  shall  pay  a  penny  sterling  for  every 
time  of  taking  tobacco  in  any  place." 

Two  years  later  :  "  The  General  Court  forbid  any 
person  to  use  tobacco  publicly,  on  fine  of  2s.  6d., 
or  privately  in  his  own  dwelling,  or  dwelling  of 
another,  before  strangers,  and  they  also  forbid  tivo 
or  more  to  use  it  in  any  place  together." 

Such  was  the  aesthetic  view  in  the  olden  time 
(the  italics  are  modern.)  Are  we  growing  more 
or  less  civilized?  When  will  the  sentiment  of 
this  enlightened  age  require  the  affixing  and  the 
executing  of  suitable  penalties  on  this  practice,  so 
far  at  least  as  it  interferes  with  the  rights,  the  com- 
fort, or  the  health  of  others  ? 

LIST    OF    BRANDS. 

Considering  this  habit  merely  in  its  relation  to 
good-breeding ,  a  volume  might  be  written.  This 
will  be  easily  believed  by  anyone  wTho  will  glance 
over  the  long  list  that  follows  of  tasteful  and  appe- 
tizing brands  which  I  have  sought  to  arrange  artisti- 
cally to  suit  my  artistic  subject.  It  will  not  be 
expected  of  one  unpractised  to  discriminate  be- 
tween the  smoking,  chewing,  and  snuffing  brands, 
as  this   involves  nice    points  known  only  to    the 


124 


TOBACCO. 


initiated.  The  list,  however,  is  gathered  from 
documents  obtained  at  headquarters,  and  may 
therefore  be  relied  on  as  accurate,  so  far  as  it  goes  : 
to  wit,  through  a  hundred  and  thirty-four  brands. 


Admiration. 
Ambassador. 
American  Eagle. 
American  Gentleman. 
Annot  Lyle. 
Atlantic. 
Banner  Brand. 
Big  Gim. 
Black  Diamond. 
Blunt  Heads. 
Bright  and  Black. 
Bright  Navy. 
Bright  Smokers. 
Bright  Wrappers. 
Brown  Dick. 
Caporal  \. 
Captive. 
Cataract. 
Cavendish. 
Cheroots. 
Chew  Fast. 
Chew  Globe. 
Clear  the  Way. 
Clipper. 
Club. 
Colorado. 
Concha. 
Conqueror. 
Corporal. 
Common  Lugs. 
Dark  and  Light  Grape. 
De  Soto. 
Dew  Drop. 

Doctor's  Prescription    ("the 
finest  and  best  cigar  in  the 


Lrrited    States,    for  the 
money."  ) 

Durham  Smoking  and  Chew- 
ing. 

Dutch  Saucer. 

Early  Bird. 

Eclipse. 

Entre  Xous. 

Erie  Cigar. 

Fine  Cut. 

Fine-fibred  Clarksville  Wrap- 
pers. 

Fig. 

Flush. 

Forest  Kose. 

French  Rappee. 

German  Lancer. 

Gold  Corn. 

Gold  Drop. 

Golden  Crown. 

Good  Lugs. 

Halves. 

Happy  Thought. 

Head  Light. 

Heart  of  Gold. 

Hold  Fast  Tobacco. 

Honeysuckle. 

Horse  Head. 

Indiana  Kite-foot. 

Ironsides. 

Jockey  Club. 

Lighter. 

Little  Dutch. 

Little  Hatchet. 

Little  Joker. 


SOCIAL    AND   ESTHETIC    VIEW. 


125 


Live  Oak. 

Long  John  Nines. 

Londres. 

Lone  Fisherman. 

Lugs. 

Lundy  Foot. 

Maccaboy. 

Magnet. 

Magnolia. 

Manilla. 

Matinee. 

Mexican  Baler. 

Mild. 

Mille  Fleurs. 

Nabob. 

Navy  Clippings. 

Negrohead. 

Neptune. 

Old  Dominion. 

Old  Honesty. 

Old  Judge. 

One  Jack. 

Onward. 

Own. 

Perique. 

Pigtail. 

Planet. 

Plug. 

Prince  Albert  Cigarettes. 

Rag  Tag. 

Raleigh  Plug  Smoking. 

Reina. 

Richmond  Gem. 

Royal  Palm. 


Royal  Puck. 
Sailors  Choice. 
Sailors  Solace. 
Saint  George. 
Saint  James. 
Scotch. 

Seal  of  North  Carolina. 
Semi. 
Senator. 
Shag. 
Signal. 

Smokers  Fat  Lugs. 
Snuff  Lugs. 
Solid  Comfort. 
Sport. 

Sweet  Corporal. 
Sweet  Oronoke. 
Sweetened  Fine  Cut. 
Tidal  Wave. 
Tobacco  Baggin. 
Trade  Dollar. 
Turkish  Patrol. 
Twist. 
Uncle  Tom. 
Union  Club. 
Union  Jack. 
Vanity  Fair. 
Veteran. 

Virginia  Yellow  and  Mahog- 
any. 
Virginia  Dare. 
White  Burley  Lugs. 
Yellow  Prior. 
Zetland. 


Sorry  am  I  to  say  that  a  Grant  brand  must  be 
added  to  this  list. 

In  view  of  such  a  multitudinous  array,  Ave  cease 
to  wonder  at  the  British  imperial  "  tobacco  pipe," 
kept  always  lighted,  and  holding,  as  we  are  in- 


126  TOBACCO. 

formed,  a  large  number  of  tons.  This  vast  tobacco- 
shop,  which  is  unequalled  in  the  world  for  size, 
covering,  as  it  does,  an  extent  of  five  acres,  and 
which  is  rented  by  the  government  for  fourteen 
thousand  pounds,  or  seventy  thousand  dollars, 
annually,  has  been  christened  —  it  would  seem 
rather  ungallantly  —  The  Queens  Warehouse. 

WHAT    PROTECTION    AGAINST    SMOKERS? 

What  shall  be  said  of  puffing  pipes  or  cigars 
along  the  streets  and  upon  the  sidewalks  into 
the  faces  of  men,  women,  and  children?  AVhat 
right  has  any  one  to  fill  God's  pure  air,  which  is 
as  much  mine  as  his,  with  such  loathsome  fumes, 
so  that  I  am  compelled  to  keep  my  mouth  tightly 
closed,  and  every  few  steps  make  futile  attempts 
to  blow  away  the  noxious  cloud  ? 

"To  be  sure,  it  is  a  shocking  thing,"  Dr.  John- 
son writes,  "the  blowing  smoke  out  of  our  mouths 
into  other  people's  mouths,  eye^,  and  noses,  and 
having  the  same  tiling  done  to  us." 

Says  Xeal  Dow :  "  The  forcibly  taking  away 
one's  pure  air  by  tobacco-smoke  is  as  much  steal- 
ing, in  the  moral  sense,  as  picking  one's  pocket." 

Must  we  go  out  and  come  in  all  our  life  long, 
making  an  everlasting  but  unheeded  protest? 
Will  deliverance  never  come?  Even  in  places 
where  it  is  forbidden,  can  we  have  no  security? 
It  is  not  simply  disagreeable,  it  is  oppressive,  suf- 
focating, I  would  say  intolerable,  except  that  we 
have  to  tolerate  it. 


SOCIAL   AND   AESTHETIC   VIEW.  127 

"  Cigar  smoke  puffed  in  a  man's  face  by  another 
man  is  assault  and  battery"  is  the  declaration  of  a 
New  York  judge.  "If  that  is  the  case,"  says  one, 
"cigarette-smoke  puffed  anywhere  in  one's  neigh- 
borhood should  be  considered  murder  in  the  first 
degree." 

Now,  have  gentlemen  the  smallest  idea  of  the 
discomfort  and  annoyance  occasioned  by  this 
habit?  It  is  bad  enough  to  encounter  it  in 
public,  or  sometimes  in  entering  a  room  where 
the  sickly  fumes  have  been  caught  and  impris- 
oned ;  but  to  have  it  sprung  suddenly  upon  us 
in  our  most  unsuspecting  mood  and  with  no  possi- 
bility of  escape ! 

You  are  a  guest  in  a  charming  household,  and 
at  a  late  hour  seek  your  room  in  the  third  story. 
As  the  weather  is  blustering,  and  your  bed  stands 
near  the  window,  you  dare  not  raise  it;  but, 
instead,  you  open  your  door.  Soon  that  unmis- 
takable vapor  ascends  from  away  down-stairs. 
Beginning  to  cough,  you  get  up  and  shut  the  door. 
Through  the  cracks  and  the  keyhole  it  still  creeps 
in,  causing  a  sense  of  faintness  and  suffocation. 
There  is  nothing  for  it  but  to  open  your  window. 
Between  the  cold  air  on  the  one  side  and  the 
"choice  Havana"  whiffs  on  the  other,  so  subtly 
telegraphed  up  to  you  from  the  polished  gentleman 
and  scholar,  luxuriating  in  his  paradise  of  smoke 
below,  you  both  shiver  and  cough.  Tired  out, 
you  fall,  at  length,  into  a  disturbed  slumber,  till, 
becoming   suddenly  conscious   of  a   strong  wind 


128  TOBACCO. 

blowing  through  the  window,  you  quickly  close  it. 
Too  late,  however ;  for  you  awake  in  the  morning 
with  a  sore  throat  and  an  aching  head,  followed, 
it  may  be,  by  a  severe  sickness. 

Has  your  accomplished  host  the  smallest  idea  of 
his  own  responsibility  in  the  case?  N'ot  he;  and 
you  open  not  your  mouth  to  accuse  him.  Indeed, 
if  you  once  do  this,  can  you  ever  shut  it?  For, 
alas,  wherever  you  go,  still  that  everlasting  per- 
fume !  You  encounter  it  on  land  and  water,  going 
out  and  coming  in,  walking  and  riding,  in  omni- 
buses, cabs,  and  cars.  Even  through  the  pretence 
of  its  banishment  from  the  latter,  the  all-pervading 
breath  of  the  inveterate  smoker  or  chewer  catches 
you  before  and  behind,  on  your  right  hand  and  on 
your  left,  while  from  the  smoking-cars  comes 
floating  in  that  indescribable  tobacco-laden  air. 

You  purchase  a  garment ;  but  when  it  reaches 
home  you  perceive  the  same  sickening  smell,  and, 
before  vou  can  wear  it,  are  obliged  to  srive  it  a 
thorough  airing. 

You  lend  a  book.  It  comes  back  telling  the 
same  stale  story.  So  that,  too,  must  be  venti- 
lated. 

You  call  at  the  post-office.  You  have  not  es- 
caped it.  Besides,  you  may  receive  a  foreign 
epistle  bearing  an  infectious  breath,  which  even 
the  passage  of  the  broad  Atlantic  has  not  been 
able  to  sweeten. 

You  enter  a  lawyer's  office.     Behold,  it  is  there. 

You  flee  to  the  parsonage ;  but  sometimes  even 


SOCIAL    AND   ^ESTHETIC    VIEW.  129 

from  the  minister's  sanctum  you  are  forced  to  beat 
a  hasty  retreat. 

You  seek  refuge  in  the  church.  It  has  got  there 
before  you  ;  indeed,  it  may  have  seized  the  pulpit 
itself.  Think  of  the  incongruities  to  which  this 
has  led  !  For  instance,  a  clergyman,  giving  out  a 
portion  of  the  Psalms,  took  occasion,  while  his 
hearers  were  opening  their  Bibles,  to  steal  a  hasty 
pinch  of  snuff,  and  then  read,  "My  soul  cleaveth 
unto  the  dust." 

Hospitably  inclined,  you  open  your  pew-door  to 
a  stranger.  He  no  sooner  enters  than  you  repent 
of  your  good  deed ;  for  with  him  enters  such  an 
offensive  odor  that  all  your  comfort  in  the  service 
vanishes. 

You  come  out  of  a  concert  or  lecture-hall,  and 
in  the  passage-ways  are  well-nigh  choked  with 
tobacco  fumes  ;  but  you  are  wedged  in  among  the 
crowd  and  must  abide  your  time. 

You  visit  your  honored  Alma  Mater.  After  the 
grand  Commencement  dinner,  and  sometimes  even 
before  it  is  through,  you  find  yourself  enveloped 
in  clouds  of  smoke,  which  enwreathe  alike  the 
youngest  graduates,  the  oldest  alumni,  and  the 
most  respected  professors. 

Stopping  transiently  at  some  boarding-house, 
you  go  to  your  room,  and  have  occasion  to  open  a 
drawer.  There  rushes  forth  an  offensive  stench 
that  almost  knocks  you  down.  It  is  as  if  the 
long-imprisoned  ghosts  of  a  thousand  cigars  were 
struggling  to  escape. 


130  TOBACCO. 

Even  your  pleasure  excursions  are  half  spoiled 
by  this  ever-following  foe.  If  you  venture  to 
protest,  you  may  be  told  that,  if  you  don't  like  it, 
the  world  is  wide,  and  you  can  go  elsewhere. 

Unfortunately,  good  sir,  the  world  is  not  wide 
enough  to  afford  us  a  hiding-place  from  smokers. 
To  make  sure  of  this,  we  must  get  into  another 
and  a  totally  different  world. 

Of  the  ^Vest  someone  writes:  "Tobacco  is 
here  the  ever-present  deity.  Circles  into  which 
whiskey  gains  no  admittance  are  cursed  with  to- 
bacco. The  judge  on  the  bench  and  the  lawyer  at 
the  bar,  the  witness  in  the  box,  and  the  jury  in 
their  seats,  are,  in  three  cases  out  of  four,  rumi- 
nating animals,  and  are  all  tributary  to  the  tan- 
colored  flood  which  deluges  the  court-room.  The 
railroad  car  and  the  stage-coach,  the  steamboat 
cabin  and  the  bar-room,  the  lyceum  hall  and,  alas  ! 
the  Christian  conference-room,  are  all  splashed 
with  disgusting  fluid.  Chewing,  smoking,  spit- 
ting, are  the  low  and  vile  enjoyments  of  animal- 
ized  man." 

Could  not  substantially  the  same  picture  be 
drawn  of  the  East  and  the  Xorth  and  the  South? 
And  what  a  picture  ! 

Writes  Dr.  Harris  :  M I  have  seen  the  floors  of 
the  lecture-rooms  of  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania as  filthy  as  any  stable  before  the  groom 
has  performed  his  morning  cleansing.  I  have 
seen  the  passage  between  the  seats  of  a  railroad 
car  in  such  a  foul  and  mucky  condition  that  no 


SOCIAL   AND   ESTHETIC   VIEW.  131 

lady  could  walk  with  safety  or  comfort  from  her 
seat  to  the  door." 

"A  proper  description  of  the  habit  of  chewing 
tobacco,"  says  one,  "  would  exhaust  the  filthy  ad- 
jectives of  the  language,  and  spoil  the  adjectives 
themselves  for  further  use." 

The  old-time  English  and  French  gentleman 
carried  around  with  him  his  own  private  spittoon, 
silver  or  otherwise,  thus  gallantly  securing  a 
monopoly  of  that  which  many  a  modern  gentleman 
dispenses  freely  to  all. 

In  our  legislative  halls,  the  ancient  snuff-boxes 
have  been  largely  displaced  by  the  modern  spit- 
boxes,  although  these  are  far  from  sufficient  to 
protect  Congressional  floors  and  furniture.  This 
civilized  custom  of  the  nineteenth  century  prevails 
par  excellence  in  our  national  capital,  making  it, 
according  to  Dickens,  "the  headquarters  of  to- 
bacco-tinctured saliva." 

Doctor    Stanton    writes    in  the    Independent : 
"Enter  the  chamber  of  the  House,  the  first  thing 
that  greets  you  is  the   smoking  f  nuisance.'     See 

the  member  of  Congress  from ,  a  clergyman, 

and  the  son  of  a  clergyman,  sitting  at  his  desk, 
or  walking  the  aisle,  smoking  and  puffing.  And 
why  should  not  he,  a  young  member,  smoke,  when 
older  members,  and  scores  of  them,  indulge  the 
habit  while  engaged  in  the  business  of  the  House  ?" 

And  the  smoke  poison  borne  upward  into  the 
faces  of  the  assembled  ladies  in  the  galleries !  Can 
anyone  deny  that  this  is  barbarism  ? 


132  TOBACCO. 

Now,  there  are  common  civilities  which  it  is  not 
expected  any  true  man  will  violate.  To  refrain 
from  smoking  or  chewing  in  the  presence  of  others 
is  no  special  virtue,  any  more  than  to  refrain  from 
rude  elbowing  and  crowding,  and  stepping  on  your 
neighbor's  toes.  To  insist,  however,  on  doing 
this,  and  in  the  very  face  of  others  —  is  it  not  an 
infraction  of  the  commonest  laws  of  courtesy? 

"Is  it  offensive  to  you  for  a  gentleman  to  smoke 
in  your  presence?  "  inquired  a  smoker  of  a  lady. 
"  No  gentleman  ever  smokes  in  my  presence,"  she 
made  answer. 

Another  lady,  in  reply  to  the  same  question, 
honestly  admitted  that  it  icas  offensive.  "  It  is  so 
to  some,"  responded  the  offender,  and  coolly  con- 
tinued smoking. 

Suppose  now,  my  gentlemanly  friend,  we  ladies 
take  our  turn  at  this  game,  not  indeed  with  cigars, 
but  with  tallow  candles,  successively  lighting  and 
extimruishino:  them  till  you  have  had  a  £ood  taste 
of  the  smoke.  Although  compared  with  that 
which  you  bestow  so  abundantly  upon  us,  it  is 
quite  innocent,  yet  I  think  you  would  speedily  cry 
Peccavi,  and  sue  for  mercy. 

A  writer  in  the  Congregational list ,  referring  to 
a  s\gn  in  a  steam-boat, —  "  Out  of  consideration 
for  the  ladies,  gentlemen  will  xot  smoke  on  this 
deck"  goes  on  to  remark, — "The  sign,  rNo 
smoking,'  is  hung  up  in  a  gentleman's  own  mind 
whenever  he  is  in  the  company  of  those  who  do 
not  smoke.     He  will  not  sacrifice  the  comfort  of 


SOCIAL    AND   ^ESTHETIC   VIEW.  133 

others  for  a  needless  indulgence.  There  are  so 
many  well-dressed  men  who  are  not  gentlemen, 
but  only  hogs  in  disguise,  that  every  transporta- 
tion company  has  to  say  to  them,  '  must  not,'  by 
frequent  signs  against  smoking.  They  would 
never  know  how  to  be  courteous  without  these 
perpetual  suggestions." 

Now,  please  take  note  that  it  is  a  gentleman 
who  makes  these  grievous  charges.  Had  I  ven- 
tured on  such  expressions,  I  should,  doubtless,  be 
arraigned  as  guilty  of  "great  exaggeration  and  in- 
vective." 

An  eminent  physician  asks, "  What  should  we 
think  of  a  person  who  spit  in  the  water  Ave  were 
about  to  drink?  And  what  is  the  difference  be- 
tween such  a  person  and  one  who  spits  a  quantity 
of  tobacco-smoke  into  the  air  wre  are  about  to 
breathe?  " 

It  is  frankly  admitted  that  among  the  trans- 
gressors are  some  of  our  most  refined  and  cultivated 
men.  But  in  what  a  predicament  will  they  some- 
times place  a  luckless  woman  !  She  is  a  visitor 
in  some  house,  and  her  agreeable  host,  being  accus- 
tomed to-  smoke  in  the  parlor,  brings  thither  his 
cigar,  when  suddenly  he  turns  to  her  with  the 
question,  "Is  smoking  disagreeable  to  you?" 

Now,  if  it  happens  to  be  repulsive  to  both 
her  natural  and  moral  sense,  what  is  she  to  do? 
What  can  she  do  but  tell  the  truth?  Does  the 
gentleman  thereupon  lay  down  his  beloved  cigar? 
By  no  manner  of  means,  but  retreats  to  enjoy  his 


134 


TOBACCO. 


smoke  elsewhere.  And  the  woman  almost  feels 
that  she  has  been  guilty  of  some  rudeness.  Ought 
these  things  to  be? 

These  refined  gentlemen  by  no  means  regard 
smoking  as  an  animal  indulgence,  but  rather  as 
an  intellectual  enjoyment.  They  will  talk  of 
the  ethereal  mood  to  which  it  lifts  them,  and  it 
may  be  of  the  loftier  essays  and  more  eloquent 
sermons  they  can  produce  under  its  inspira- 
tion. This,  however,  is  precisely  the  argument 
that  some  urge,  and  with  equal  reason,  for  the 
use  of  opium  and  hashish.  Into  what  mental 
exaltation  did  the  former  raise  De  Quincey  !  Yet 
how  terrible  the  retribution  !  The  principle  in 
all  these  narcotics  is  virtually  the  same,  though 
tobacco  is  far  more  offensive  than  any,  or  than  all 
the  rest. 

But  whatever  pleas  may  be  urged,  it  remains 
an  unalterable  fact  that  the  public  highway  is  not 
a  smoking  room ;  and,  if  it  would  be  regarded  as 
an  indictable  offence  for  one  to  carry  around  with 
him  assafoetida  or  any  other  vile  compound,  and 
fling  it  broadcast  as  he  walks  the  streets  or  enters 
private  dwellings,  why  should  not  the  doers  of  the 
same  with  this  noxious  weed  be  also  liable  to  in- 
dictment ! 

You  don't  regard  it  as  an  annoyance  to  others? 
Do  you  take  others  at  all  into  the  account  ? 

Not  an  annoyance  !  How,  then,  do  you  inter- 
pret the  conspicuous  posters  in  various  countries  ? 

JVb  smoking  here! 


SOCIAL   AND   ESTHETIC    VIEW.  135 

Smoking  positively  forb  idden  ! 

JVb  smoking  abaft  the  shaft ! 

Nicht  rauchen! 

Hier  wird  nicht  ger audit! 

Niet  rooken! 

JSFefumez  pas  id! 

11  est  defendu  defumer! 

And  what  means  the  label,  Smoking-car? 

Think  for  a  moment  of  the  potency  of  a  habit 
which  makes  the  public  parading  of  such  rules 
necessary.  It  is  bad  enough  as  it  is  —  indeed,  it 
is  often  more  than  the  innocent  part  of  the  travel- 
ling public  knows  how  to  bear ;  but  were  these 
very  few  and  sometimes  ill-kept  regulations  en- 
tirely done  away  with,  such  a  dreadful  tyrant  is 
this  tobacco,  that  a  reign  of  terror  would  speedily 
ensue,  when  no  uncontaminated  man.  woman,  or 
child  would  dare  to  venture  forth.  Is  not  this 
strange  lack  of  consideration  and  courtesy  due, 
in  part,  at  least,  to  the  benumbing,  and  may  I  not 
add  demoralizing,  influence  of  the  habit? 

Would  that  the  regulations  were  far  more  strin- 
gent !  that  our  railroad  directors  might  label 
certain  cars  —  For  the  Unclean,  and  then  prohibit 
smoker  or  chewer  from  entering  any  other  !  As 
it  is,  the  irrepressible  smoker  follows  you  wher- 
ever you  go.  You  seat  yourself  in  a  car,  and  in 
utter  disregard  of  the  printed  ordinance  —  Smok- 
in9  forbidden  —  in  some  subtle,  indescribable 
fashion,  the  dreaded  odor  assails  you  in  front  and 
in  rear.     You  pay  an  extra  dollar  and  retreat  to  a 


136  TOBACCO. 

Pullman.  Vain  effort !  From  regions  unknown 
comes  the  same  sickening  vapor. 

A  great  responsibility  rests  on  railroad  direc- 
tors who  encourage  the  tobacco-habit,  not  only  by 
running  special  cars  for  the  benefit  of  smokers, 
but  by  providing  for  luxurious  offenders  rooms  in 
the  palace  cars,  whence  the  fumes  and  sometimes 
the  accompanying  profanity  find  their  way  to  many 
an  innocent  victim. 

In  order  to  make  your  travelling  connections 
you  are  doomed  to  pass  several  long  hours  at  a 
station.  In  the  Ladies'  Room  is  posted  conspic- 
uously—  Smoking  positively  forbidden.  All  in 
vain  !  for  through  the  telegraph  window  comes 
pouring  in  that  same  perennial  stream. 

TWENTY   MINUTES    IN    A    SMOKING-CAR. 

Once,  strange  to  say,  I  spent  twenty  minutes  in 
a  smoking-car.  It  was  on  approaching  Hoosac 
Tunnel,  and  as  this  was  the  rear-car,  it  was  our 
best  point  of  observation.  Over  and  above  this, 
however,  I  admit  that  I  made  the  most  of  the 
occasion,  urging  this  singular  visit, — greatly  to 
the  surprise  and  protest  of  my  companion, — 
because  I  desired  the  enlightenment  of  my  own 
sis:ht  and  smell  and  hearing. 

Yet  it  was  with  a  half-guilty  feeling  that  I  stole 
in  behind  him,  almost  as  if  I  were  seeking  en- 
trance to  some  Tartarean  abode.  The  sense  of 
hearing  was  not  offended,  as  an  instant  hush  fell 
on  the  surprised-lookim?  smokers  at  the  unwonted 


SOCIAL    AND    .ESTHETIC    VIEW.  137 

presence  of  ladies.  Their  cigars,  too,  seemed  to 
drop  instinctively  from  their  lips.  But  the  senses 
of  sight  and  of  smell  were  abundantly  filled,  I  will 
not  say  satisfied. 

A  card-table,  evidently  not  a  mere  ornamental 
appendage,  stood  conveniently  between  every  two 
seats,  —  an  expensive  indulgence  not  granted  to 
any  other  class  of  passengers,  —  a  seeming  pre- 
mium offered  to  smokers.  After  twenty  minutes 
of  forced  endurance  I  withdrew,  saddened  and 
indignant,  with  profound  pity  for  the  women  whose 
dear  ones  such  places  could  attract.  Most  of  all 
I  wondered  how  any  man  of  religious  principle, 
or  even  ordinary  sensibility,  could  bring  himself 
to  tolerate  such  a  social  and  moral  atmosphere ; 
still  more,  how  he  could  seek  it.  My  one  expe- 
rience was  enough  for  a  lifetime. 

M  I  was  glad,"  said  Thoreau  when  at  Cape  Cod, 
"  to  have  got  out  of  the  towns  wThere  I  am  wont 
to  feel  unspeakably  mean  and  disgraced,  —  to 
have  left  behind  me  for  a  season  the  bars  of 
Massachusetts,  where  the  full-grown  are  not 
weaned  from  savage  habits,  —  still  sucking  a  cigar. 
My  spirits  rose  in  proportion  to  the  outward 
dreariness.  The  towns  need  to  be  ventilated. 
The  gods  would  be  pleased  to  see  some  pure 
flames  from  their  altars.  They  are  not  to  be 
appeased  with  cigar-smoke." 


138  TOBACCO. 

PRESENT  OUTLOOK. 

The  outlook  has  not  improved  since  Thoreau's 
day.  On  a  hot  summer's  night  you  invite  your 
guests  to  sit  by  the  windows  and  enjoy  the  cool  air. 
No  sooner  are  you  all  fairly  seated  than  strolling 
smokers  begin  to  pass,  compelling  you  to  shut  out 
the  air  which  they  have  poisoned. 

On  a  Sunday  evening,  you  wander  forth  to  an 
out-door  meeting  on  the  hill-side.  Once,  twice,  and 
yet  again,  the  near  presence  of  some  smoker  drives 
you  from  your  seat. 

You  eniraofe  a  room  at  some  fashionable  seaside 
hotel,  —  Nantasket,  Coney  Island,  Atlantic  City, 
or  any  of  the  popular  resorts.  Through  the  open 
windows,  with  the  fresh  breath  of  Ocean,  enters  a 
totally  different  breath.  It  pervades  the  verandah 
crowded  with  ladies,  filling  the  wide  atmosphere  ; 
"and  sometimes,"  writes  a  sojourner  who  had  vainly 
sought  an  escape,  "the  finer  sex  seem  to  like  to 
have  it  so." 

You  enter  a  city  ferry-boat.  If  you  are  a  gentle- 
man and  not  a  smoker,  and  the  ladies'  cabin  is 
full,  whither  shall  you  betake  yourself?  Accord- 
ing to  the  best  of  testimony  the  so-called  gentle- 
men's cabin  is  not  a  fit  place  for  a  decent  man. 
Says  one  who  had  been  obliged  to  occupy  it  several 
times,  "I  have  invariably  suffered  headache  or 
dizziness  or  nausea  after  standing  in  the  filth,  and 
breathing  the  abominable  smoke  from  hundreds  of 
vile  cigars  and  viler  pipes."     How  long  will  our 


SOCIAL   AND  .ESTHETIC   VIEW.  139 

ferry  companies  be  more  considerate  in  their 
arrangements  for  tobacco-votaries  than  for  all  their 
other  passengers  combined  ? 

You  go  on  board  a  steamer  for  a  pleasant  sail, 
and  seat  yourself  on  the  deck.  Presently  you  are 
haunted  by  that  unmistakable  odor.  Turning  your 
head,  you  find  a  person  near  by,  puffing  away  in 
serenest  complacency.  You  change  your  seat. 
This  only  brings  you  into  the  range  of  another 
equally  serene  offender.  Verily,  there  is  no  escape. 
The  smokers  plant  themselves  before  you  and  be- 
hind you  and  beside  you,  and  no  one  says  them 
nay. 

A  traveller  writes :  "  If  I  were  an  artist,  and 
desired  to  picture  absolute  selfishness,  I  would 
paint  a  smoker  seated  on  the  forward  deck  of  a 
steamer,  his  face  radiant  with  that  familiar  expres- 
sion of  complacency,  while  his  fellow  travellers, 
sickened  and  disgusted,  are  trying  to  shield  them- 
selves from  the  fumes  of  his  pipe. 

"  We  spent  one  of  the  loveliest  days  of  the  past 
summer  in  f  shooting  the  rapids '  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence. Three  persons,  dressed  like  gentlemen, 
seated  themselves  on  the  forward  part  of  the  boat, 
and  from  after  breakfast  till  we  reached  the  dock 
in  Montreal  in  the  evening,  they  rivalled  the  fur- 
nace fires  in  polluting  the  balmy  atmosphere." 

A  lady  on  a  journey  fell  in  with  a  recently 
married  couple.  When  the  bridegroom  saw  that 
the  smoke  from  his  cigar  annoyed  his  bride,  so 
that  she  tried  to  brush  it  away,  he  brought  himself 


140         .  TOBACCO. 

squarely  in  front,  and  then  smoked  straight  into 
her  face  ! 

You  betake  yourself  to  a  rural  retreat.  But  no 
matter  how  secluded  it  may  be,  there  will  be  some 
way  of  getting  to  it,  whether  by  car,  coach,  or  cart. 
And  whatever  the  vehicle,  somebody  will  be  in  it, 
and  that  somebody  will  be  sure  to  smoke  or  chew, 
or  both. 

Even  the  broad  ocean  offers  no  asylum.  In 
spite  of  printed  enactments,  the  lawless  wind  bears 
the  dreadful  odors  "  abaft  the  helm,"  directly  into 
your  face.  Can  the  moral  atmosphere  engendered 
by  this  habit  be  any  more  securely  locked  in  ?  A 
traveller  says :  "  One  of  the  foulest  places  I  ever 
saw  for  blackguards,  profanity,  and  indecent  lan- 
<ruage,  was  the  smokinsr-room  of  an  ocean  steamer." 
And  this  testimony  is  abundantly  repeated.  Let 
me  give  that  of  Dr.  Charles  S.  Robinson  :  — 

w  It  is  deemed  to  be  a  prime  advantage  on  the 
part  of  steamer  companies  to  publish  that  their 
vessels  are  provided  with  r  smoking-rooms,  beauti- 
ful and  clean,  quiet  and  comfortable,  in  the  steadiest 
part  of  the  deck.'  Oh,  the  sarcasm  of  those  sweet 
words  of  recommendation  !  Whoever  enters  one 
of  these  reserved  saloons  after  the  first  twenty- 
four  hours  from  the  start,  will  find  it  a  noisy, 
stenchful  pandemonium  of  smoking,  drinking,  bet- 
ting, and  gambling,  into  which  no  decent  person 
can  enter,  and  in  which  no  peace-loving  person  can 
stay  without  exasperation. 

<fIt  has  been  my  lot  to  cross  the  ocean  many 


SOCIAL    AND    ESTHETIC    VIEW.  141 

times  during  the  last  fifteen  years ;  I  have  chosen 
my  passage  on  the  vessels  of  nearly  every  line 
which  plies  between  Xew  York  and  Liverpool,  and 
on  a  number  of  vessels  of  some  of  them  ;  and  I 
distinctly  aver  that  the  smoking-rooms  are  the 
centre  of  demoralization  and  offensiveness,  and  this 
is  on  the  increase,  summer  after  summer,  as  the 
travel  increases." 

The  very  literature  of  the  day  is  tinged  and 
flavored,  and  sometimes  saturated,  with  tobacco. 
Many  a  hero  in  our  most  popular  novels  is  made 
to  luxuriate  in  the  elegant  accomplishment  of 
smoking.  "He  gracefully  knocks  the  ashes  from 
his  cigar."  "  With  gentlemanly  ease  he  enjoys  at 
once  his  smoking  and  her  conversation." 

In  a  serial  by  a  favorite,  and,  in  the  main,  high- 
toned,  young  novelist,  issued  in  one  of  our  first- 
class  magazines,  we  find  the  following:  "The 
discussions,  it  was  observed,  were  always  more  en- 
joyable when  the  Professor,  having  his  easy-chair 
placed  in  exactly  the  right  position  with  regard  to 
light  and  fire,  found  himself  with  his  cigar  in  hand 
carefully  smoking  it  and  making  the  most  of  its 
aroma.  His  tranquil  enjoyment  of  and  respect  for 
the  rite  were  agreeable  things  to  see.  f  It  soothes 
me,'  he  would  say.  f  It  even  inspires  and  ele- 
vates me.  I  feel  as  if  I  had  discovered  a  new 
sense.     I  am  really  quite  grateful."1 

Another  of  our  charming  writers,  in  connection 
with  one  of  his  characters,  speaks  of  the  "  fra- 
grance of  admirable  cigars,  that  active  and  passive 


142  TOBACCO. 

perfume,  which  comes  from  smoking  and  being 
smoked  in  the  best  company." 

And  the  heroines  of  these  tales  are  blandly  re- 
signed, even  if  they  do  not  actually  smile  upon  the 
deed.  Now,  for  variety's  sake,  why  can't  we  have 
a  hero  who  will  none  of  this,  —  who  always  and 
everywhere  eschews  the  weed? 

Just  look  back  to  the  degradation  to  which  this 
luxury  of  being  smoked  had  brought  the  Aztec 
civilization  at  the  time  of  Spanish  discovery  and 
conquest.  It  may  be  found  in  Herbert  Bancroft's 
History  of  the  Native  Races,  vol.  I.,  page  776,  a 
quotation  from  Wafer's  New  Voyage  :  f?  Laying 
two  or  three  leaves  upon  one  another,  they  roll  up 
all  together  sideways  into  a  lon^  Roll,  vet  leaving 
a  little  hollow.  Round  this  they  roll  other  Leaves 
one  after  another,  in  the  same  manner,  but  close 
and  hard,  till  the  Roll  be  as  big  as  one's  Wrist, 
and  two  or  three  feet  in  length.  Their  way  of 
Smoaking  when  they  were  in  Company  together  is 
thus  :  A  Boy  lights  one  end  of  a  Roll  and  burns  it 
to  a  Coal,  wetting  the  part  next  to  it  to  keep 
it  from  wasting  too  fast.  The  end  so  lighted  he 
puts  into  his  mouth  and  blows  the  Smoak  through 
the  wThole  length  of  the  Roll  into  the  Face  of 
everyone  of  the  Company  or  Council,  tho'  there 
be  2  or  300  of  them.  Then  they,  sitting  in  their 
usual  Posture  upon  Forms,  make  with  their  Hands 
held  hollowr  together,  a  kind  of  Funnel  round  their 
Mouths  and  Xoses.  Into  this  they  receive  the 
Smoak  as  't  is  blown  upon  them,  Snuffing  it  up 


SOCIAL    AND    .ESTHETIC    VIEW.  143 

greedily  and  strongly,  as  long  as  ever  they  are  able 
to  hold  their  Breath,  and  seeming  to  bless  them- 
selves,  as  it  were,  with  the  Refreshment  it  gives 
them." 

In  a  letter  bearing  on  this  point,  John  G.  Whit- 
tier  writes  :  "  The  vile  practice  is  increasing  —  the 
blessed  air  of  heaven  is  foul  with  it.  Our  novel- 
writers,  women  especially,  on  both  sides  of  the 
water,  make  their  heroes  announce  their  coming  to 
their  fair  ones  by  the  smell  of  tobacco-smoke,  and 
take  their  cigars  from  their  mouths  only  when  they 
stop  puffing  to  kiss  !  It  is  a  shameful  and  filth}' 
habit,  indecent  and  unmanly." 

Now  I  have  faith  enough  in  my  own  sex  to  be- 
lieve that  anything  of  this  on  the  part  of  a  true 
woman  must  be  from  ignorance  or  inconsideration. 
How  otherwise,  dear  sister,  would  it  be  possible 
for  you  or  for  me  to  speak  lightly  of  such  a  prac- 
tice? How  could  we  give  our  seeming  approval 
to  it  by  accepting  an  invitation  to  walk  or  to  ride 
with  a  gentleman  who  has  a  cigar  in  his  mouth  ; 
or  by  voluntarily  putting  ourselves  in  the  way  of 
inhaling  cigar-smoke,  no  matter  how  delicately 
scented  it  may  be  ?  Is  a  poisoned  chalice  any  the 
less  fatal  for  being  wreathed  with  roses?  How  can 
we  dare  to  countenance  that  which  not  only  has 
been  proved  perilous,  but  which  our  Quaker-poet 
pronounces  "a  shameful  and  filthy  habit,  indecent 
and  unmanly  V  Could  we  ask  a  higher  aesthetic 
authority  ? 

Let     me    introduce    other    testimony   from    a 


144  TOBACCO. 

wholly  opposite  direction.  When  the  trainer  of 
Barnum's  clown-elephant,  proposed  to  add  to  his 
many  wonderful  performances  that  of  smoking  a 
tobacco-pipe,  Barnum  replied  that  ff  his  army  of 
employees  were  men  of  exemplary  character,  and 
his  clown-elephant  should  not  be  permitted  to 
demoralize  them  by  setting  them  a  bad  example." 

Is  there,  then,  I  repeat,  absolutely  no  refuge, 
no  quarantine,  by  which  these  noxious,  ever-poison- 
ing, ever-persecuting  spirits  of  the  air  can  be 
effectually  shut  out  from  the  innocent? 

"  Chewers,"  writes  one,  "ejaculate  their  saliva 
upon  the  sidewalk,  in  the  store,  in  spittoons  which 
become  incorporate  stenches,  in  dark  corners 
of  railroad  cars  to  stain  the  white  skirts  of  unsus- 
pecting women,  in  lecture-rooms  and  churches, 
upon  fences,  and  into  stoves  that  hiss  with  anger 
at  the  insult.  And  the  quids  after  they  are  ejacu- 
lated— !" 

Some  smoke  till  their  bedrooms  and  shops  can 
scarcely  be  breathed  in,  and  until  their  breath  is 
as  rank  as  the  breath  of  a  foul  beast,  and  their 
clothes  have  the  odor  of  the  sewer. 

And  this  loathsome  without  is  only  a  fit  exponent 
of  the  equally  loathsome  with  in .  Says  Dr.  Alcott  : 
f'  If  the  interior  of  the  tobacco-user  could  be 
fairly  exposed  to  the  public  gaze,  I  am  not  sure 
but  it  would  do  more  to  deter  the  rising  irenera- 
tion  from  falling  into  this  habit  than  all  our  lectures, 
and  essays,  and  homilies." 

Did  no  one  suffer  except  the  willing  victim,  the 


SOCIAL    AND   ^ESTHETIC   VIEW.  145 

case  would  be  different.  But  the  dreadful  penalty 
falls  heaviest  on  the  nearest  and  dearest :  on  those 
who  cannot  escape  the  sickening  atmosphere,  no, 
not  for  a  moment. 

A  writer  of  experience  tells  us  that  there  are 
professional  men,  lawyers,  physicians,  clergymen, 
college  professors,  and  not  a  few  prominent  liter- 
ary men,  who  carry  with  them  into  society,  as  well 
as  into  the  street  and  the  railway  car,  not  the  odor 
of  a  fresh  cigar,  which,  in  comparison,  would  be 
endurable,  but  the  "vile,  vulgar  scent  of  a  cigar 
long  since  burned  to  ashes." 

Who,  indeed,  has  not  seen  a  gentleman  (?)  enter 
a  car,  and  leaving  his  satchel  or  overcoat  in  posses- 
sion of  a  seat,  retire  to  the  smoking-car,  lose  him- 
self in  the  dense  clouds  of  some  half  a  hundred 
cigars,  have  his  smoke  out,  and  then  return 
saturated  from  hat  to  boots  with  the  sickening 
fumes?  And,  alas!  peradventure,  this  may  be  a 
Reverend,  a  Professor,  or  a  Doctor  of  Divinity, 
and  a  man  of  refinement  too. 

If  an  Arab  regards  spitting  in  his  presence  as  an 
insult,  even  outside  his  tent,  can  one  conceive  of 
the  just  indignation  of  American  women  when 
travelling  in  the  cars?  There  's  little  use  in  care- 
fully holding  up  one's  dress,  and  looking  warily 
from  place  to  place.  One  may  as  well  make  a 
covenant  with  her  eyes,  and  take  the  first  seat  that 
comes.  The  men  chew  and  spit,  they  read  and 
spit,  they  talk  and  spit,  they  laugh  and  spit,  they 
breathe  and  spit,  and  some  swear  and  spit. 


141)  TOBACCO. 

Windows  may  be  open  at  right  and  left ;  but, 
apparently,  they  consider  it  a  sin  to  spit  out  of 
them.  Well,  it  would  be  a  pity  to  sully  the  fair 
face  of  Nature  ;  indeed,  one  might  well  compas- 
sionate a  country  drenched  in  such  narcotic  show- 
ers. 

By  lamplight,  as  by  daylight,  the  process  goes 
on.  And  what  scenes  do  the  flickering  lights  dis- 
close !  Men,  shaken  out  of  their  dignity,  tumbling 
and  rolling  every  way  ;  while  some,  from  their 
horizontal  positions,  now  spit  more  directly  upon 
their  neighbors !  Women,  huddled  up  on  the 
seats,  starting,  even  in  their  slumbers,  at  these 
ever-threatening  showers  ! 

Will  any  one  deny  that  this  fashion  is  an  out- 
rage against  all  propriety  ?  Ought  passengers  who 
have  paid  honestly  for  their  tickets  to  be  thus 
doomed  to  perpetual  terror? 

Daniel  Webster  said:  "If  gentlemen  must 
smoke"  (or  chew,  he  might  well  have  added)  "let 
them  take  the  horse-shed."  This  seems  to  have 
been  the  prevailing  sentiment  in  that  staunch  tem- 
perance town,  Oberlin,  Ohio.  Years  ago,  a  doc- 
tor-of-divinity  smoker,  who  was  passing  a  few  da}'s 
there,  found  himself  out  of  cigars.  After  a  long 
hunt  in  search  of  them,  he  was  directed  to  a  host- 
ler who  might,  perhaps,  supply  him.  He  sought 
him  out,  and  obtained  a  cigar ;  but  when  told  that 
he  must  go  behind  the  stable  to  smoke,  such  a 
sense  of  shame  came  over  him  that  from  that  time 
he  foreswore  the  indulgence. 


SOCIAL    AND   ESTHETIC   VIEW.  147 

Not  so  apt  disciples  were  two  New  England 
ministers  who,  being  at  the  same  place,  at  a  con- 
vention, some  years  later,  walked  down  the  rail- 
way-track for  their  daily  smoke. 

It  is  not  uncommon  to  find  among  temperance 
lecturers  ardent  devotees  of  the  weed.  A  total 
abstainer,  yet  a  tobacco-sot ! 

We  have  suffered  quite  enough  from  these  demi- 
semi-reformers.  Our  parlors  and  our  chambers, 
our  halls  and  our  sanctuaries  are  often  desecrated 
by  their  performances.  "  Why  don't  you  use  the 
church  for  your  temperance  addresses,  and  devote 
to  the  cause  the  money  you  expend  in  hiring  a 
hall?"  "Oh,  it  would  never  do,  the  church  is  so 
fearfully  defiled  by  these  lecturers."  When  such 
men  come  out  from  a  smoke-room,  pallid,  trem- 
bling, and  bearing  the  nauseous  signs  of  the  in- 
dulgence, instead  of  mounting  the  platform  to 
exhort  others  to  temperance,  would  it  not  be  more 
fitting  that  they  should  take  the  back  seats,  and 
listen  in  silence  and  humiliation?  Thou  that  sayest 
another  shall  not  drink,  dost  thou  smoke  or  chew  ? 

CIVIL   RIGHTS   VS.    TOBACCO. 

Wh}'  cannot  the  civil-trespass  law  be  brought  to 
bear  on  this  matter  ?  Our  statutes  forbid  that  any 
man  shall,  from  greed  of  gain,  or  to  gratify  any 
unnatural  appetite,  cause  a  nuisance  in  any  public 
place  wThere  all  have  equal  rights  and  a  common 
interest.  Is  not  the  wide-spread  use  of  the  wreed 
a  nuisance  so  offensive,  so  unwholesome,  that,  if 


148  TOBACCO. 

suddenly  sprang  upon  the  community,  there  would 
be  a  spontaneous  uprising,  an  indignant  mass- 
meeting,  which  should  demand  its  immediate  ex- 
pulsion? Xo  pipe  or  cigar  ought  to  be  smoked 
within  a  thousand  yards  of  a  church  or  place  of 
public  gathering.  Cannot  the  early  New  England 
statute  be  revived,  at  least  so  far  as  to  impose  a 
fine  on  any  person  using  the  weed  publicly? 

In  point  here  is  the  opinion  of  Dr.  John  H. 
Griscom,  president  of  the  Xew  York  Society 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science  and  Art,  and  for 
twenty-three  years  attending  physician  of  the  Xew 
York  Hospital:  f'If  every  human  being  should 
understand  and  appreciate  the  value  of  pure  air 
when  inhaled,  and  the  injurious  influence  of  any 
foreign  substance  when  absorbed  into  the  blood 
through  the  lungs,  the  writer  hereof  cannot  doubt 
that  tobacco-smoking  would  be  totally  discarded 
voluntarily  and,  perhaps,  legally." 

Joseph  Cook  says  :  ffI  believe  that  the  natural 
instinct  of  man  concerning  tobacco,  if  he  has  not 
inherited  a  taste  for  it,  is  repulsive.  When  I  was 
in  Harvard  University,  Dr.  Shattuck,  of  the  Medi- 
cal School,  gave  a  lecture  on  Health  to  the  fresh- 
man class  ;  and  he  told  its  members  that  he,  as  a 
physician,  could  not  deny  that  tobacco  was  a  sed- 
ative ;  but  that  if  they  must  take  it,  he  would 
advise  them  to  put  it  in  a  bowl  on  the  mantel- 
piece, and  take  it  as  a  decoction ;  for  then  it 
would  have  all  its  sedative  effect,  and  not  injure 
anyone  else  besides  the  taker  of  it.     That  was  the 


SOCIAL   AND   ESTHETIC   VIEW.  149 

coolest  advice  I  ever  heard  concerning  the  use  of 
tobacco." 

Yet  five-sixths  of  the  Harvard  students  are  ad- 
dicted to  this  habit !  Would  that  the  old  order 
issued  by  the  overseers  of  the  University  in  the 
time  of  President  Dunster  could  be  revived  !  — 

"No  scholar  shall  take  tobacco,  unless  permitted 
by  the  President,  with  the  consent  of  parents 
or  guardians,  and  on  good  reasons  first  given 
by  a  physician  ;  and  then  in  a  sober  and  private 
manner ." 

Speaking  of  another  of  our  leading  New  England 
colleges,  a  writer  recalls  the  past,  when  "  no  student 
could  have  maintained  his  character  for  scholarly 
instincts  who  should  have  smoked  on  the  public 
streets,  or  at  an  Alumni  dinner  or  supper."  "  Now, 
however,"  he  adds,  "the  modern  student,  with  no 
more  sense  of  propriety  than  the  Irishman,  puffs 
in  public  places,  and  forces  his  foulness  into  the 
presence  of  the  older  graduates  at  Commencement- 
dinner  and  other  college  festive  occasions.  Such 
rudeness  is  bad  enough  anywhere,  but  it  is  simply 
unpardonable  in  men  who  claim  the  refinements  of 
good  learning  and  of  gentle  manners." 

An  alumnus  of  one  of  our  highest  New  England 
colleges,  in  speaking  through  the  press  of  a  recent 
Commencement,  tells  us  that  at  the  business- 
meeting  of  his  class  a  great  many  smoked,  the 
cigars  being  furnished  and  distributed  by  one  of 
the  professors  :  and  that,  at  the  Alumni  dinner, 
presided    over    by   the    college  president,    many 


150  TOBACCO. 

began  smoking,  while  a  large  number  were  still 
eating ! 

TOBACCO-PICTURES. 

Among:  the  various  methods  of  usin°:  this  aesthetic 
weed,  a  few  of  those  less  familiar  may  be  men- 
tioned. 

The  Indians  were  accustomed  to  insert  the 
forked  ends  of  a  hollow  cane  into  the  nostrils  and 
then  apply  the  other  end  to  the  burning  leaves  or 
to  the  dried  and  powdered  tobacco,  thus  inhaling 
smoke  or  snuff  as  the  case  mi^ht  be. 

In  Micronesia,  as  the  missionary,  Mr.  Rand, 
tells  us,  all  smoke,  men,  women,  and  children, 
though  the  habit  of  sitting  down  alone  to  enjoy  a 
smoke  is  never  practised.  On  the  assembling  of 
a  crowd,  a  chief  calls  for  his  pipe !  This  is 
brought,  filled,  and  lighted  by  a  little  boy  or  girl, 
who,  in  the  process,  takes  early  lessons  in  the  fine 
art.  When  the  lighted  pipe  is  handed  to  the  chief, 
he  passes  it  to  a  chief  higher  in  rank,  and  he  again 
to  one  still  higher,  till  the  topmost  man  is  reached. 
This  man  takes  a  fewT  whiffs,  then  hands  it  to  the 
next  one,  and  so  on,  till  all  the  company  are 
served. 

Dr.  Titus  Coan,  the  late  venerated  missionary 
of  Hawaii,  says  of  the  Patagonians  :  R  They  would 
inhale  the  smoke  of  tobacco,  hold  it  for  a  time  in 
their  mouths,  then  blow  it  out  through  the  nostrils, 
or  swallow  it  into  the  lungs,  and  become  deadly 
drunk.  I  have  been  aroused  at  midnight  by  the 
most  fearful  groans  of  savages   in  the  wigwams 


SOCIAL   AND   .ESTHETIC   VIEW.  l5l 

near  by,  and  on  entering  them  have  been  struck 
with  the  ghastly  and  cadaverous  look,  and  chilled 
with  the  agonizing  groans  of  Indians  drunk  with  to- 
bacco fumes.  The  same  was  true  of  the  Marquesas 
group,  of  the  Hawaiian  Islanders,  of  the  Poly- 
nesians generally,  and  of  all  savage  tribes,  so 
far  as  I  can  learn." 

Of  the  snuff-taking  habits  among  the  Zulus, 
Rev.  Josiah  Tyler,  who  has  been  a  missionary 
in  Africa  over  thirty  years,  gives  the  following 
account : — 

"The  Zulus  make  their  snuff  of  tobacco,  dry 
aloes,  and  ashes,  grinding  it  very  fine.  It  is 
exceedingly  pungent,  causing  tears  to  flow  pro- 
fusely down  their  cheeks,  which  they  wipe  off 
with  a  snuff-spoon  made  of  bone  or  horn ;  this 
being  their  only  handkerchief.  Old  and  young  of 
both  sexes  carry  snuff-boxes  made  of  small  cala- 
bashes tied  to  a  girdle  around  the  wraist.  Some- 
times diminutive  reeds  full  of  snuff  are  inserted  in 
holes  in  their  ears.  When  they  meet  —  after  the 
usual  salutation,  f  I  see  you,  friend'  —  the  snuff  is 
passed  round,  each  one  taking  a  good  pinch.  It 
is  a  nasty  habit ;  their  nostrils,  after  this  operation, 
being  covered  with  filth ;  and  it  is  also  injurious 
to  health. 

"Zulu  men,  especially  young  men,  are  be- 
coming fearfully  addicted  to  smoking;  and  I 
perceive,  after  thirty-two  years'  observation,  that 
it  makes  serious  inroads  on  their  constitutions. 
This  is  one  of  the  unpleasant  results  of  European 


152  TOBACCO. 

civilization/  I  am  glad  to  say  that,  so  far  as  my 
knowledge  extends,  no  American  missionary  in 
South  Africa  uses  tobacco  in  any  form.  "We  shall, 
ere  long,  have  anti-tobacco  societies  in  all  our 
missionary  stations  ;  and  shall  fight  against  this  vile 
habit  till  we  lay  our  armor  down." 

What  pictures  may  be  seen  in  Mexico  !  —  the 
schoolmaster  with  a  cigar  in  his  mouth,  and  his 
scholars  smoking  around  him,  either  at  their  reci- 
tations or  studying  in  their  seats,  as  a  reward  of 
merit ! 

In  the  law-courts,  judges,  jury,  and  prisoner 
all  smoking  ;  the  latter,  if  his  cigarette  happens  to 
go  out  in  the  excitement  of  the  charges  against 
him,  coolly  lights  it  by  that  of  the  officer  who  is 
his  guard  !  Xo  wonder  that  an  inveterate  smoker 
is  said  to  have  become  Mexicanized. 

Mr.  Pixley,  another  missionary  in  Africa,  writes  : 
"  It  has  sometimes  been  said,  and  very  truly,  that 
Africa  is  a  land  where  the  people  eat  with  their 
fingers  and  take  snuff  with  a  spoon.  The  first 
request  on  meeting,  after  the  salutation,  invariably 
is,  f  Give  me  some  snuff',  my  friend.'  Down  they 
sit ;  each  takes  his  snuff-spoon,  and  the  one  who 
consents  to  treat  shakes  his  box  and  pours  some 
snuff  into  his  open  hand.  From  this  each  one  dips 
a  portion  with  his  spoon,  and  all  begin  to  snuff; 
often  continuing  snuffing  and  chatting  till  the  tears 
roll  down  their  cheeks. 

"  Everywhere  men  and  women  who  do  not  take 
the  weed  as  snuff'  delight  to  smoke  the  pipe ;  some 


SOCIAL   AND  .ESTHETIC  VIEW.  153 


have  learned  from  Christians  the  de^raclinof  habit 


of  chewing;  and  a  few  women  and  girls  have 
become  adepts  in  the  art  of  f  dipping '  as  adroitly 
as  any  Southern  lady. 

"  This  tobacco  habit  blunts  the  sensibilities  of 
Zulu  Christians  so  that  missionaries  feel  that  it  is 
almost  as  much  of  a  hindrance  to  the  progress  of 
the  Gospel,  and  to  the  elevation  of  the  people  as 
intemperance." 

Dr.  Lizars  relates  that  he  once  travelled  with  a 
South  American,  "  who  first  filled  his  nostrils  with 
snuff,  which  he  prevented  from  falling  out  by 
stuffing  shag  tobacco  after  it,  and  this  he  termed 
?  plugging  ; '  then  put  in  each  cheek  a  coil  of  pig- 
tail tobacco,  which  he  named  r  quidding ; '  lastly, 
he  lit  a  Havana,  which  he  put  into  his  mouth. 
This  gentleman  was  as  thin  as  a  razor,  and  fright- 
fully nervous." 

What  a  body  of  living  death ! 

TOBACCO   MANUFACTURE  ;    CIGARETTE    MAKING. 

The  following  is  a  description  by  Lillie  E.  Barr, 
of  the  preparation  of  tobacco  as  she  saw  the  pro- 
cess in  Richmond,  Virginia  :  — 

M  After  a  certain  amount  of  drying  and  dipping 
into  various  solutions,  it  goes  through  the  supreme 
process  which  makes  it  palatable  to  the  chewer. 
The  leaves  are  laid  on  the  floor,  not  necessarily  a 
clean  floor,  and  then  a  negro  man,  with  pants 
rolled  up  to  the  knees,  walks  backward  and  for- 
ward upon  it.     As  he  does  so,  he  pours  upon  it  a 


154  TOBACCO. 

solution  of  loaf  sugar,  licorice,  delicate  essences, 
etc.,  which,  to  use  a  darkey's  expression,  'are  well 
stomped  in  by  dese  two  foots.'  If,  while  perform- 
ing this  'stomping'  business,  he  desires  to  spit, 
the  leaves  get  the  benefit  of  that  juice,  also  ;  while 
with  his  bare  feet  he  kicks  them  over  and  over, 
and  'stomps'  both  sides  well.  The  mess  is  then 
swept  up  into  a  pile,  and  afterward  strung  on 
poles  and  dried. 

"Do  the  men  wash  their  feet  before  going  on 
the  tobacco  ?  "  I  inquired. 

"  f  Well-1  —  they  wash  them  when  they  come 
off,'  was  the  smiling  answer." 

Truly  an  appetizing  process  ! 

A  writer  in  the  Xew  York  Times  furnishes  ad- 
ditional pleasant  information  :  — 

"  A  prominent  physician  told  me  lately  that 
from  the  practice  of  cigar-makers  wetting  the 
wrapper  with  their  saliva,  and  biting  the  end  of 
the  cigar  into  shape,  a  spread  of  syphilitic  disease 
was  taking  place ;  and  that  he  knew  of  several 
cases.  Somewhat  alarmed,  I  managed  to  visit  a 
number  of  factories.  Two  thirds  of  the  cigar- 
makers,  I  found,  daub  the  whole  end  of  the  cigar 
with  their  saliva.  Thinking  that  Cuban  workmen 
might  not  do  it,  I  visited  places  where  they  were 
employed,  and  found  not  only  did  they  use  their 
saliva  to  make  the  wrapper  stick,  but  that  most  of 
them  before  wrapping  bit  the  end  of  the  cigar  into 
shape  with  their  teeth.  As  the  physician  in- 
formed me  that  many  of  the  cigar-makers  have  sore 


SOCIAL   AND  .ESTHETIC   VIEW.  155 

mouths  from  disease,  it  is  a  dangerous  as  well  as  a 
beastly  habit." 

A  Detroit  paper  gives  an  account  of  a  squalid 
old  man  whom  a  reporter  saw  picking  up  cigar- 
stubs.  In  his  collection,  he  also  had  "ends  of 
villainous  five-centers-stubs  picked  out  of  office- 
spittoons,  and  swept  from  the  floors  of  saloons." 

After  replying  to  the  reporter's  questions,  a 
policeman  took  him  to  a  little  tenement,  in  the 
front  room  of  which  were  a  man,  a  woman,  and  two 
girls.  Passing  through  to  a  back  room,  they  found 
live  dirty  boys  sprinkling  cigar-stubs  from  a  rusty 
old  pot,  then  cutting  them  into  shreds  and  spread- 
ing them  out  to  dry,  after  which  the  whole  mass 
was  taken  to  the  front  room.  Here,  with  shreds  of 
this  stale  tobacco  scattered  all  over  the  floor  and 
around  their  bare  feet,  the  slatternly  woman  and  girls 
were  rolling  out  the  repulsive  material.  Wetting 
the  wrappers  with  their  lips,  they  would  poke  the 
hair  out  of  their  eyes,  and  then,  moistening  the 
finger  tips  of  the  same  hand  with  their  tongue, 
would  smooth  out  the  edges  till  a  dainty  cigarette 
was  the  result.  The  man's  business  was  to  do  up 
these  cigarettes  into  bunches,  and  then  put  fancy 
labels  on  them. 

"  Are  there  many  who  smoke  this  second-hand 
tobacco?"  asked  the  reporter.  The  policeman's 
reply  was  :  "  Thousands  upon  thousands.  Not 
such  as  this  old  scavenger,  but  nobby  young  bloods 
who  never  did  an  hour's  manual  labor  in  their 
lives,  and  never  will ;  young  fellows  who  wear  the 


156  TOBACCO. 

latest  fashions,  and  carry  little  canes.  They  're 
the  ones  who  smoke  those  old  stubs." 

There  is  a  kind  of  tobacco  —  I  cannot  srive  the 
brand — whose  fumes  are  exceedingly  offensive 
even  to  the  smoker, — I  mean  to  the  refined  smoker  ; 
nor  is  he  a  model  of  patience  when  it  is  inflicted  on 
him.  Strange  he  cannot  realize  that  to  most  of  the 
uninitiated,  all  tobacco  is  obnoxious ;  that  they  in- 
stinctively repel  the  whole  genus. 

The  pervasiveness  of  the  weed  has  been  more 
than  once  spoken  of.  There  is  in  fact  no  such 
thing  possible  as  absolutely  cleansing  a  home  afflic- 
ted with  chronic  smoking.  Even  a  few  whiffs 
leave  their  mark.  What  was  my  consternation 
one  day  on  opening  a  closet-door,  to  perceive  the 
unmistakable  fumes  !  Had  one  of  my  male  mem- 
bers turned  traitor?  I  summoned  them  both. 
They  emphatically  declared  their  innocence.  On 
close  examination,  the  offender  proved  to  be  a 
garment  just  brought  from  an  establishment  where 
smoking  was  in  vo^ue. 


WIVES    OF   TOBACCO-USERS. 

What  shall  we  say  as  to  those  women  whom  these 
inveterate  smokers  call  wives?  I  have  seen  a  man 
whom  I  loved  and  respected,  who  showed  by  many 
a  sad  token  the  effects  of  his  cruel  bondage.  I 
have  heard  his  wife,  who  had  borne  the  trial 
patiently,  though  with  suffering  health,  speak 
with  feeling  of  the  clean  and  sweet  atmosphere  of 
houses  untainted  with  tobacco. 


SOCIAL    AND   ESTHETIC   VIEW.  157 

Think  of  a  delicate  woman  who  is  unpleasantly 
affected  by  the  least  breath  of  the  vile  weed  yoked 
to  one  who  makes  use  of  it  perpetually.  The 
health  of  many  a  wife  has  been  sacrificed  by  such 
a  union.  But  has  not  the  husband  sufficient  love, 
or  even  common  gallantry,  to  abandon  the  habit 
he  formed  before  marriage  ?  JVbt  he!  In  the  scales 
are  placed  on  the  one  hand  his  wife,  and  on  the 
other  his  ugly  idol ;  and  the  latter  outweighs  the 
former ! 

I  should  fail  in  justice,  however,  if  I  did  not 
affirm  that  I  know  of  two  or  three  men  who,  lovinor 
the  wife  more  than  the  cigar,  did  actually,  once 
and  forever,  trample  it  under  their  feet. 

I  have  heard  of  a  few  others  who  from  a  similar 
motive  broke  their  fetters.  The  wife  of  a  certain 
smoker  was  affected  with  palpitation  of  the  heart, 
deathly  faintness,  and  hysterical  symptoms.  Her 
physician  was  at  first  puzzled,  but  concluded  that 
she  was  a  victim  of  tobacco-poisoning.  The  uncon- 
scious husband,  on  learning  the  views  of  the  doctor, 
instantly  abandoned  smoking,  and  was  rewarded 
by  the  speedy  recovery  of  his  wife. 

I  know  a  gentleman  in  Philadelphia,  who  did 
more  than  that.  In  his  young  days,  cherishing  a 
high  respect  for  womanhood,  though  he  had  not  then 
found  his  ideal,  he  fell  into  reflections,  as  young 
men  sometimes  will,  on  the  subject  of  matrimony. 
Believing  that  the  habit  of  smoking  rendered  him 
less  worthy  the  love  of  any  true  woman,  with  a  high 
chivalric  feeling,  he  abandoned  it.  This  was  genuine 


158  TOBACCO. 

aesthetics.  When,  in  our  civil  war,  he  entered  the 
army,  many  prophesied  a  fall.  But  his  wife  knew 
him  better.  While  multitudes  succumbed  to  the 
subtle  tempter,  he  never  wavered. 

Another  striking  case  is  that  of  a  physician  who 
thus  graphically  describes  his  conflict.  When  his 
wife,  soon  after  their  marriage,  asked  the  sacrifice, 
he  readily  replied, — 

"  f  Nothing  will  afford  me  greater  delight  than  to 
yield  to  your  request.'  So  I  entered  upon  my  re- 
nunciation," he  says,  "and  in  twenty-four  hours 
was  thoroughly  conscious  of  m v  enslavement.  Oh  ! 
how  my  nervous  system  suffered  from  the  want  of 
its  daily  draught  of  poison  !  The  most  violent 
headache  and  blindness,  equal  to  that  which  was 
induced  when  I  first  indulged  in  the  use  of  tobacco, 
came  upon  me ;  and  such  complete  prostration  of 
my  physical  powers  and  depression  of  mind,  with 
perturbation  of  spirits,  I  hope  never  during  my 
mortal  life  to  be  called  upon  again  to  endure.  My 
blood  played  through  my  veins  as  if  it  were  a  sea- 
surge.  I  saw  all  invisible  things  that  were  ugly 
and  demon-like  :  devils  in  the  shape  of  old  women, 
haggish  and  witch-like,  danced  around  me.  For 
the  first  time  in  my  life  I  became  sensible  of  the 
enslaving  powers  of  appetite.  Xo  force  of  will,  or 
vigor  of  conscience  was  competent  to  my  deliver- 
ance. My  love  for  my  wife,  which  usually  ab- 
sorbed all  my  self,  faded  away  into  nothingness. 
I  saw  nothing,  thought  0f  nothing,  felt  nothing 
but  the  overpowering  desire  for  my  tobacco," 


SOCIAL    AND   ESTHETIC    VIEW.  159 

For  three  months  this  process  of  resolving  and 
falling  went  on,  every  successive  fall  being  deeper 
than  the  preceding.     He  continued,  — 

M I  was  about  to  leave  home  on  a  journey.  Be- 
seeching the  Saviour  to  help  me,  I  went  out  into 
the  darkness.  From  that  hour  to  this  the  poison 
has  not  passed  my  lips.  For  four  months,  however, 
I  was  in  a  wild,  dreamy  haze,  staggering  through 
mist  and  darkness,  a  dozen  times  a  day  tempted 
and  well-nigh  overborne,  but  conquering  for  the 
hour  and  stru^glin^  on." 

Is  it  strange  that  a  woman  should  be  unwilling 
to  share  a  man's  heart  with  so  base  a  rival,  getting 
the  smaller  share  at  that?  Nay,  is  it  not  the  won- 
der of  wonders  that  any  woman  should  feel  other- 
wise ? 

In  the  fact  that  not  a  few  wives,  sisters,  and 
mothers,  from  lack  of  information  on  the  subject, 
and  a  loving  readiness  to  sacrifice  their  own  com- 
fort to  the  gratification  of  their  dear  ones,  submit 
quietly  to  this  ever-encroaching  tyrant,  —  in  this 
fact,  may  we  not  find  some  slight  explanation  of 
its  almost  universal  sway  ? 

But  the  case,  I  fear,  is  sometimes  worse  than 
this.  The  perpetual  strain  that  comes  upon  some 
men  from  the  ambitious  craving  and  promptings  of 
their  wives  and  daughters  for  a  more  elegant  style 
of  dress  and  of  living,  is  doubtless  irritating  as  well 
as  wearing.  I  pity  the  man  who,  feeling  that  be 
ought  not  to  be  thus  taxed,  and  who,  failing,  in  spite 
of  all  his  toil  to  satisfy  these  cravings,  is  driven  to 


160  TOBACCO. 

a  cigar  for  consolation.  But  I  pity  far  more  the 
woman  who  has  any  share  in  driving  him  to  this. 
Better  that  she  and  her  daughters  should  live  in  an 
Irish  shealing  and  wear  tow-cloth  all  the  days  of 
their  life  than  thus  to  be  a  drag  upon  their  best 
friend,  ruthlessly  turning  the  sweet  sentiment  of 
life  into  bitterness  and  gall. 

FEMALE    DEVOTEES. 

Can  any  picture  be  more  revolting  than  that  of 
the  miserable,  snuff-dipping  women  of  the  south  ? 
Their  life  is  not  life,  —  hardly  existence, — but 
one  continuous  stupor  —  faculties,  feelings,  con- 
science, everything  dead,  except  the  single  sense 
of  snuff —  snuff. 

But  this  dipping  is  not  confined  to  the  poor 
whites.  In  other  classes,  circles  of  young  ladies 
and  married  ladies  meet  expressly  to  practise  it. 
Each  snuff-dipper  carries  her  bottle  or  box,  and 
also  a  swab,  by  which  she  conveys  the  filthy  stuff 
to  her  mouth,  afterwards,  perhaps,  passing  it  to 
her  neighbor. 

The  ladies  prepare  this  swab  by  taking  a  little 
stick  of  green  wood  about  an  eighth  of  an  inch  in 
diameter,  and  chewing  one  end  of  it  till  the  fibres 
are  separated,  giving  it  the  appearance  of  a  small 
broom.  Saturating  this  with  saliva,  they  dip  it  in 
their  box  of  snuff,  and  then  place  it  as  far  back  in 
the  mouth  as  possible,  leaving  the  other  end 
sticking  out.  Many  walk  along  the  streets  with 
the  dip  in  their  mouth. 


SOCIAL   AND   ESTHETIC   VIEW.  161 

Nor  does  this  loathsome  custom  stop  at  the 
South.  Careful  investigation  has  proved  that  for 
a  number  of  years  it  has  prevailed  to  a  consider- 
able extent  in  the  city  of  New  York,  the  tobacco- 
nists, who  call  it  "  digging,"  admitting  that  a  large 
part  of  the  demand  comes  from  fashionable  circles. 
These  diggers,  however,  conceal  their  perform- 
ances, seeking  the  privacy  of  their  own  rooms 
when  giving  themselves  up  to  their  disgusting  de- 
bauch. With  a  horn  or  a  spoon  the  abominable 
stuff  is  deposited  inside  the  lower  lip,  and  thence, 
when  sufficiently  moistened,  passed  round  the 
mouth. 

Says  the  journal  from  which  most  of  the  above 
facts  are  taken :  rf  That  our  readers  may  form 
some  idea  of  the  enormous  prevalence  of  this  habit 
in  their  midst,  we  may  state  that  one  tobacconist, 
having  a  small  store  on  Broadway,  retails  one  hun- 
dred pounds  per  week,  to  his  f  digging'  customers 
alone.  Another  firm,  which  keeps  a  store  on 
Broadway,  and  also  one  down  town,  makes  and 
sells  three  barrels  —  seven  hundred  pounds  —  in 
three  days,  all  of  which  is  consumed  by  women  of 
New  York  city.  The  amount  used  by  each  f  dig- 
ger,' varies  from  one  quarter  of  a  pound  to  a  pound 
a  week." 

A  victim  of  this  terrible  mania,  finding  when  she 
had  started  on  a  journey,  that  she  had  forgotten 
her  snuff-box,  gave  a  black  stewardess  five  dollars 
for  a  little  of  the  baneful  dust  which  she  had  in  her 
possession, 


162  TOBACCO. 

Alas  for  the  woman  who  has  surrendered  to 
this  vilest  habit !  The  costliest  gifts  and  the 
most  earnest  rebukes  are  alike  unavailing.  Neither 
conscience  nor  reason,  neither  ruined  health,  nor 
pleading  friends  can  move  her. 

But  this  unspeakably  dreadful  custom  is  by  no 
means  confined  to  grown-up  women.  Indeed  it 
would  seem  to  be,  in  the  South,  a  part  of  common- 
school  education ;  while  the  boys  spit  tobacco-juice 
all  over  the  floor,  the  girls  hold  their  snufF-swab, 
or  dip,  between  the  teeth,  except  indeed,  when 
they  share  it  with  some  less-favored  schoolmate. 

Many  have  supposed  that  the  snuff  taking,  for- 
merly so  common  among  women  and  girls  in  the 
North,  and  which  frequently  was  an  understood  part 
of  the  social  gatherings,  had  long  ago  died  out.  But 
it  would  seem  that  the  habit  has  only  changed  its 
form,  and  that  from  bad  to  very  much  worse. 
Indeed  the  use  of  snuff  among  factory-girls,  M  to  lie 
as  a  sweet  morsel  between  the  cheek  and  gums, 
is  growing  alarmingly  prevalent.  In  response  to 
inquiries,  a  druggist  in  a  large  manfacturing  town 
affirms  that  w  there  is  no  limit  to  its  use  by  these 
girls." 

The  outlook  as  to  feminine  smokers  is  equally 
disheartening.  A  tobacco-dealer  affirms  that 
"  nearly  half  his  trade  in  cigarettes  is  directly  or 
indirectly  among  women  and  girls." 

A  orraduate  of  one  of  our  best  ladies'  seminaries 
has  so  fearfully  retrograded  that  she  indulges  in  a 
daily  after-dinner  cigarette. 


SOCIAL   AND   ESTHETIC   VIEW.  163 

On  a  crowded  boat,  between  New  York  and 
Boston,  a  lady  (?)  passenger,  unable  to  sleep, 
rose  at  three,  virtuously  mended  her  gloves,  and 
then,  O  shade  of  Minerva!  leaning  back  in  her 
arm-chair,  gave  herself  up  to  a  cigarette  ;  while, 
stretched  on  mattresses  around  her,  many  looked 
on  with  undisguised  amazement  and  disgust. 

Kiding  in  an  omnibus  in  the  New  England 
metropolis,  I  heard  one  young  girl  in  a  loud  voice 
ask  another,  "Did  you  forget  the  cigarettes ?"  "I 
was  afraid  I  had  left  them,  but  I  find  they  are  in 
my  pocket."  I  could  scarcely  credit  my  senses. 
I  had  another  shock,  however,  at  what,  after  this, 
ought  not  to  have  surprised  me,  — the  hearing  of 
profane  words  from  those  same  youthful  lips. 

But  there  is  a  still  darker  view.  The  smoking 
father's  darling,  who  climbs  into  his  arms,  and 
clings  around  his  neck,  and  whom  he  kisses  fondly 
with  lips  redolent  of  a  Havana,  is  made  familiar 
with  its  flavor.  A  drop  of  its  poison  on  the  tongue 
of  her  pet  kitten  would  be  fatal.  But  she  be- 
comes gradually  accustomed  to  it,  and,  associating 
it  with  her  papa,  will  sometimes  "play  smoke." 
And  now  her  little  brother  appears  with  a  dainty 
cigarette  in  his  mouth,  seemingly  a  bit  of  white, 
fragrant  paper,  so  delicate  that  with  a  puff  or  two 
it  disappears.  "  How  nice  !  "  she  exclaims,  "  please 
give  me  one."  He  complies,  for  there  is  no  pro- 
testing voice.  Why  should  there  be  ?  Her  father, 
now  and  then,  smokes  these  cigarettes  as  "baby 
cigars."     Her  brother,  too,  smokes   them ;    why, 


164  TOBACCO. 

pray  should  should  n't  she  ?  Alas  !  what  is  to  be 
the  end  of  all  this  ? 

A  writer  in  the  Washington  Post  gives  an  ac- 
count of  a  well-dressed  lady  who  entered  a  drug- 
store, and,  coolly  asking  for  a  couple  of  cigars, 
paid  for  them  as  unconcernedly  as  she  would  for  a 
bottle  of  cologne.  In  answer  to  his  questions,  the 
druggist  informed  him  that  he  sold  as  many  cigars 
either  to  ladies  or  on  their  order  by  messengers  as 
he  did  to  gentlemen,  remarking  that  at  first  the 
ladies  were  quite  shy  as  to  their  purchases,  and 
that  he  managed  matters  so  as  to  save  their  blushes. 
"But  after  a  while,"'  he  added  significantly,  "they 
don't  mind." 

And  what  shall  be  said  of  ladies'  smoking-clubs? 
From  the  Retailer,  of  Xew  York  city,  Ave  learn 
that  a  cigar-dealer  of  Louisville,  Ky.,  pronounces 
the  members  of  such  a  club  his  most  profitable 
customers.  By  his  account,  it  seems  that  they  are 
from  the  aristocracy  of  the  city ;  that  they  insist 
on  the  very  finest  of  tobacco,  flavored  with  the 
most  delicate  perfumes ;  that  they  meet  at  one 
another's  houses,  and,  with  locked  doors,  have  out 
their  smoke ;  that  they  seek  to  remove  all  traces  of 
the  habit,  or,  if  any  tell-tale  scent  betrays  them, 
charge  it  to  the  account  of  their  smoking  gentle- 
men  friend?.  One  of  these  young  ladies  is  re- 
ported as  saying  that,  although  she  would  prefer 
not  to  have  her  smoking  habit  known,  yet  that,  if 
the  secret  got  out,  and  was  unfavorably  commented 
on,  "she  would  snap  her  fingers  in  the  objector's 
face." 


SOCIAL    AND   .ESTHETIC   VIEW.  165 

Since  writing  the  above,  I  have  met  with  a  Ken- 
tucky young  woman  who  confirms  the  above  ac- 
count, but  begs  that  it  may  not  be  taken  for 
granted  that  all  the  Kentucky  girls  are  of  this 
sort,  as  some  of  them  are  strongly  opposed  to  to- 
bacco. 

On  the  other  hand,  I  have  learned  from  authen- 
tic sources  that  in  Philadelphia,  the  city  of  William 
Pcnn,  there  is  also  a  ladies'  smoking-club,  and 
composed,  like  the  former,  of  the  creme  de  la 
creme  of  society. 

How  many  other  of  our  cities  are  thus  dese- 
crated? 

There  is,  if  possible,  a  still  lower  deep  to  which 
the  fair  sex  has  fallen, — the  chewing  of  tobacco. 
I  learn  from  accredited  witnesses  that  this  desrrad- 
ing  habit  is  quite  common  among  Western  and 
Southern  women ;  and  a  picture  was  given  of  one 
of  these  chewers  too  revolting  to  repeat.  Yet 
these  women,  say  the  narrators,  are  sometimes 
from  the  so-called  respectable  class. 

In  heaven-wide  contrast  to  such  women  and 
to  the  clubs  above  named  is  an  association  of 
young  women,  in  a  certain  town,  who  passed  reso- 
lutions that  they  would  not  have  intercourse  with 
any  young  man  who  used  tobacco,  or  avIio  was 
not  strictly  temperate.  At  first,  the  young  men 
made  themselves  meriy  over  this,  declaring  that 
they  could  stand  out  as  long  as  the  girls.  But 
these  girls  quietly  held  to  their  resolves ;  and 
gradually  one  young  man  after  another  broke  from 


166  TOBACCO. 

his  obnoxious  habits,  till  tobacco  and  the  wine-cup 
were  banished  from  the  circle. 

DEMANDS    OF    MODERN     TRAVEL. 

A  keen  observer  writes  :  K  Your  genuine  smoker 
comes  to  feel  that  he  has  a  right  to  all  the  air,  in 
doors  and  out  of  doors,  and  feels  himself  wronged 
when  a  man  or  woman  puts  in  a  claim  to  breathe 
it  without  the  tobacco  admixture." 

Let  me  give  a  recent  experience  bearing  directly 
on  this  point.  After  various  inquiries  as  to  the 
different  routes  from  St.  Louis  to  Chicago,  the 
glowing  representations  as  to  "  The  Palace  Reclin- 
ing-Chair  Cars,''  on  the  Chicago  &  Alton  Road, 
led  my  companion  and  myself  to  make  choice  of 
that.  So,  on  a  bright  morning,  we  entered  the 
car,  anticipating  a  delightful  journey.  As  we 
stopped  at  the  various  stations,  passengers  came  in 
through  the  door  in  front.  They  were  mostly  of 
the  male  sex,  and  now  and  then  one  of  them  had  a 
cigar  in  his  mouth.  I  cannot  assert  positively  that 
these  cigars  were  lighted,  but  I  noticed  that  they 
were  laid  aside  with  seeming  reluctance,  or  held 
tenderly  in  the  hand  ;  and  in  one  or  two  cases,  that 
they  were  still  burning.  The  seats  near  the  door, 
and  facing  the  chairs,  were  occupied  by  persons 
whom  it  needed  no  diviner's  rod  to  pronounce 
smokers,  while  the  same  might  be  said  of  several 
who  sat  in  the  chairs. 

The  atmosphere  soon  became  thoroughly  im- 
pregnated with  tobacco-fumes.     It  did  not  take 


SOCIAL   AND   ESTHETIC   VIEW.  167 

loner  to  discover  that  the  smoking-room  was  close 
by,  between  the  inner  and  the  outer  doors.  As  a 
matter  of  course,  the  little  hall,  or  vestibule,  was 
filled  with  unmistakable  odors,  which  made  their 
way  through  every  cranny  and  crevice  ;  while  each 
time  the  door  was  opened  —  which  I  should  say 
occurred  about  every  other  minute,  —  thick  clouds 
of  smoke  were  borne  directly  into  our  faces,  bring- 
ing with  them  headache,  nausea,  sore  throat,  and 
a  sense  of  suffocation. 

I  ventured  to  ask  the  porter  to  open  the  venti- 
lators. As  he  hesitated,  I  urged  that  the  smoke 
sickened  me,  begging  for  a  little  fresh  air,  if  only 
for  a  few  minutes.  He  replied  courteously,  but  to 
the  effect  that  people  could  n  't  expect  to  have  the 
cars  like  a  private  parlor;  yet  he  did  slightly 
open  one  or  two  of  them.  I  have  no  fault  to  find 
with  him,  knowing  how  many  are  opposed  to  venti- 
lation ;  indeed,  it  was  a  hard  alternative,  for  even 
strong  and  perpetual  currents  could  only  partially 
have  purified  the  atmosphere,  while  they  might 
have  cost  some  of  the  passengers  a  severe  cold. 

As  it  was,  the  faint  breath  that  stole  in  was  no 
match  for  the  ever-increasing  fumes.  For,  in  ad- 
dition to  the  poisoned  air  so  freely  bestowed  on  us 
from  the  smoke-room,  we  were  forced  to  endure 
the  presence  of  the  smokers  themselves,  as  one 
after  another  returned  to  the  cars.  Gentlemen,  as 
some  of  them  evidently  were,  —  with  a  good  num- 
ber of  honorable  legislators,  —  they  surely  could 
not  have  realized  how  saturated  were  their  whole 


168  TOBACCO. 

persons  with  offensive  odors.  Over  and  over 
again  I  asked  myself,  M  Am  I,  verily,  in  one  of 
'The  Finest  Palace  Reclinixg-Chair  Cars  in 
the  World  ?  '  " 

After  a  time  one  of  the  aforesaid  gentlemen 
carefully  closed  the  ventilator.  Feeling  too  mis- 
erable for  resistance,  I  said  not  a  word  ;  indeed, 
I  had  entirely  succumbed  to  the  inevitable.  For 
twelve  long  hours  were  we  thus  imprisoned, —  our 
much-anticipated  trip  being  turned  into  disappoint- 
ment, discomfort,  and  positive  suffering. 

Yet  we  were  pilgrims  all  the  way  from  the  old 
Bay  State,  and  never  again  expected  —  I  might, 
on  that  day,  have  added,  never  again  desired — to 
be  in  the  Mississippi  valley.  Need  I  say  that  I 
was  thankful  when  the  last  mile  was  ended ;  when 
sick,  weary,  and  disgusted,  I  was  free  to  leave 
this  much-lauded  rt  luxurious  "  car. 

To  show  that  my  statements  are  not  exaggerated, 
let  me  say  that  neither  a  long  waiting  in  the 
ladies'  room,  nor  a  ride  of  a  mile  and  a  half, 
proved  a  sufficient  quarantine.  We  carried  with 
us  a  strong  tobacco-flavor,  which  our  friends 
instantly  noticed.  If  they  had  inferred  that  we 
were  just  from  a  smoking  car,  would  they  have 
been  far  out  of  the  way?  For  several  days  the 
dreadful  tobacco-odor  clung  to  my  garments,  and 
the  tobacco-poison  lingered  in  my  system. 

Now,  I  am  a  peaceable  woman,  not  given  to 
complaints;  and  were  I  the  only  victim,  I  would 
keep  silence.     But  I  speak  in  behalf  of  hundreds 


SOCIAL    AND   .ESTHETIC    VIEW.  169 

of  fellow-sufferers,  who  are  beguiled,  like  our- 
selves, by  alluring  advertisements.  The  common 
smoking-car  is  quite  bad  enough  in  the  penalties  it 
inflicts,  sometimes,  on  a  whole  train.  But  to  have 
one's  expectations  of  something  super-excellent  end 
in  smoke  —  this  is  a  cruel  imposition. 

Is  there  no  remedy  for  all  this?  Have  not  the 
lovers  of  God's  pure  air  certain  rights  as  well  as 
the  ever-increasing  —  may  I  not  add,  ever-e^- 
croaching  —  army  of  smokers  ?  And  will  not  you, 
mighty  men  of  the  railroads,  help  us  in  securing 
and  preserving  these  rights  ? 

In  justice  to  at  least  one  of  these  autocrats,  I 
ought  to  state  that,  on  venturing  to  send  an  account 
of  my  unfortunate  journey  to  the  general  manager 
of  the  road,  he  returned  the  following  courteous  re- 
ply :  "  I  very  much  regret  that  you  were  annoyed 
in  the  manner  indicated.  The  demands  of  modern 
travel  have  compelled  us  to  place  these  smoking 
rooms  in  many  of  our  chair-cars,  and  in  our  sleep- 
ing-cars ;  but  it  is  the  intention  to  have  them  so 
constructed  that  they  will  not  in  the  least  way 
interfere  with  the  other  part  of  the  car.  We  will 
look  into  the  matter  of  which  you  complain,  and 
see  that  a  remedy  is  applied." 

While  fully  appreciating  these  assurances,  I 
could  not  help  pondering  the  expression,  "the 
demands  of  modern  travel."  What,  then,  is  this 
modern  travel?  And  who  are  these  demanders, 
to  whom  must  be  sacrificed  women,  children,  and 
non-smoking  men  ? 


170  TOBACCO. 

One  of  this  latter  class,  a  sick  banker,  in  making 
an  extended  pleasure  trip  through  the  country, 
represents  that  at  the  stations  he  usually  found  the 
G'<r/itleme)i's  Room  "a  smoking  pen;  "  that  on  the 
boats,  whenever  he  took  his  seat,  K  a  smoke  fac- 
tory "  would  be  planted  in  his  face  ;  that  when  on 
the  cars,  with  the  stopping  of  every  train,  gentle- 
men were  sure  to  be  at  the  open  door  filling  the 
car  with  smoke,  while  along  the  route  the  stock 
was  frequently  replenished  by  the  passage  through 
it  of  a  lighted  cigar ;  that  he  came  to  shun  the 
palace-cars,  as  he  there  had  to  pay  higher  prices 
for  less  comfortable  seats,  and  for  staler  smoke, 
which,  from  the  close  vicinity  of  the  smoking- 
room,  was  distributed  without  stint.  This  banker's 
experience  quickened  his  inventive  powers  to  the 
extent  of  making  some  adequate  return,  in  the  form 
of  a  thousand  trumpets  imitating  cigars.  Armed 
with  these,  boys  were  commissioned  to  go  forth, 
and,  like  another  Gideon's  host,  to  blow  their 
trumpets  in  the  ears  of  all  offenders  ;  and  thus 
avenge  on  their  sense  of  hearing  the  torment  they 
inflicted  on  others. 

This  tobacco  habit  is  making  fearful  strides,  and 
sometimes  under  an  illusive  guise.  A  friend  tells 
me  of  a  journey  he  took  on  The  Limited  Express 
of  the  Pittsburg,  Fort  Wayne  &  Chicago  Road. 
Attracted  by  the  proclamation  of  a  fine  library  in 
the  cars,  he  sought  it  out  to  find  all  the  books 
locked  up,  and  the  room  so  dense  with  smoke  that 
he  could  scarcely  see  from  one  end  of  it  to  the 


SOCIAL   AND   ESTHETIC   VIEW.  171 

other ;  could  not  easily  have  read  the  books,  had 
they  been  open  before  him. 

Another  friend  has  given  me  her  experience.  It 
seems  that  a  number  of  the  passengers  had  taken 
through  tickets  from  Philadelphia  to  Cleveland, 
and  with  the  understanding  that  there  was  no 
change  of  cars.  At  Harrisburg,  where  the  train 
stopped  for  a  few  minutes,  a  gentleman  and  his  wife 
stepped  out  to  get  refreshments,  leaving  their  little 
ones  with  the  nurse.  While  they  were  absent,  a 
brakeman  came  along,  calling  on  the  passengers  to 
go  at  once  into  another  car.  So,  with  only  the 
nurse  to  attend  to  it,  the  children,  with  their  many 
scattered  wraps,  and  bags,  and  parcels,  must  be 
quickly  gathered  up  and  hustled  out.  A  lady  in 
the  same  car,  to  whom  this  move  was  as  annoying 
as  it  was  unexpected,  in  an  aggrieved  tone  asked  the 
brakeman,  "Why  is  such  a  change  necessary?" 
"Because,"  replied  the  brakeman,  "we  have  to 
make  this  up  for  a  smoking  car!  " 

"  THE   DEMANDS   OF   MODERN   TRAVEL  !  " 

And  where  will  these  demands  end  ? 

TOBACCO-BARBARISM . 

There  is  a  close  if  hidden  connection  between 
the  minor  and  the  major  moralities. 

No  one  can  violate  the  former  without  blunting  his 
finer  feelings  and  becoming  far  more  likely  to  in- 
fringe the  latter. 

In  the  Art  Journal,  Jackson  Jarves,  in  treating 


172  TOBACCO. 

of  "  the  manners  of  the  Latin  and  Ango-Saxon 
races,  considered  as  a  fine  art,"  attributes  much  of 
the  decline  of  good  manners  to  the  increasing  use 
of  tobacco.     He  says  :  — 

ff  I  refer  to  the  anti-aesthetic  influence.  The 
supreme  test  of  the  virtue  of  the  knight  in  the  days 
of  chivalry,  which  was  the  highest  ideal  of  fine 
manners,  was  his  self-denial  and  desire  to  succor 
the  oppressed.  The  severest  test  of  the  modern 
gentleman  is  his  willingness  to  forego  his  pipe  for 
the  comfort  and  health  of  another.  It  takes  a 
thoroughly  well-bred  man  to  withstand  this  form 
of  self-indulgence,  when  it  can  only  be  practised 
to  the  annoyance  of  another.  Whatever  the  bene- 
fit or  harm  the  use  of  tobacco  may  do  the  con- 
sumer's body,  its  common  tendency  is  to  render 
the  mind  indifferent  to  the  well-being  of  his 
neighbors.  Smokers  crowd  into  rooms  or  seats 
reserved  for  those  who  would  escape  their  presence, 
and  claim  the  right  to  fumigate,  sicken,  and  half 
strangle  those,  be  they  delicate  women  and  chil- 
dren, whose  physicial  organizations  are  more 
sensitive  than  their  own,  and  sometimes  add  insult 
to  the  contemptuous  indifference  with  which  they 
inflict  positive  distress  on  their  victims." 

Mr.  Jarves  concludes  with  an  illustration  show- 
ing the  tendency  of  this  tobacco  habit  to  develop 
boorish  manners  :  — 

"  I  have  known  a  German  of  rank,  with  his 
daughter,  get  into  a  ladies'  compartment  in  a  rail- 
way carriage,  and  insist  on  using  his  pipe,  despite 


SOCIAL   AND   ^ESTHETIC   VIEW.  173 

the  expostulations  of  the  lady  occupants,  who 
finally  were  compelled  to  apply  to  the  guard  for 
protection,  when  he  was  made  to  go  into  the 
smoking  carriage.  As  he  reluctantly  went,  his 
daughter  turned  angrily  to  the  ladies,  exclaiming, 
f  See  what  you  have  done  to  my  poor  papa  !  You 
make  him  leave  his  place  to  smoke  away  from 
me.'" 

A  writer  describes  a  scene  he  witnessed  at  a 
hotel  in  the  vicinity  of  one  of  the  most  popular 
New  England  colleges.  Around  a  coarse,  illiterate 
man,  enwreathed  in  clouds  of  smoke,  gathered  a 
circle  of  young  loafers,  to  whom  he  passed  cigars. 
As  they  joined  him  in  smoking,  they  talked  slang 
and  profanity.  It  was  difficult  for  the  beholder  to 
credit  the  fact,  which  incidentally  became  known 
to  him,  that  these  same  smoking,  swearing  loafers 
were  veritable  college  students. 

I  believe  it  will  not  be  denied  that,  as  tobacco 
comes,  good  manners  are  apt  to  go,  yet  if  you  ex- 
press concern  that  a  young  friend  is  in  this  bondage, 
one  sometimes  breaks  out  on  you  with  the  remark, 
ff  Be  thankful  he  does  n't  drink.  Let  him  smoke 
as  much  as  he  will,  and  in  your  parlor,  too,  that 
you  may  thus  save  him  from  the  saloon."  And  it 
is  said  without  a  suspicion  that  this  habit  often 
leads  to  that  very  place. 

All  honor  to  the  brave  young  woman,  who,  in 
uttering  her  protest  against  tobacco,  declares  that 
"  there  is  one  girl  firmly  resolved  never  to  marry 
a  man  who  uses  tobacco,  and  to  do  what  she  can 


174  TOBACCO. 

by  prayer  and  works  to  break  up  this  growing 
evil."  In  her  own  family  she  had  so  learned  this 
evil  by  heart  that  she  could  not  help  lifting  up  her 
voice.  Are  there  not  many  other  girls  who  will 
join  her  ranks,  and  thus  present  a  fair,  solid  front 
to  the  invading  foe  ? 

"  Tobacco  is  the  worst  natural  curse  of  modern 
civilization."  Such  is  the  declaration  of  our  aes- 
thetic seer. 

That  the  general  tendency  of  this  weed  is  to  bring 
men  down  to  a  lower  plane  will  not  be  denied. 
The  effect  on  the  lower  classes  themselves  is  to 
degrade  them  still  lower,  to  deaden  the  sense  of 
their  own  pitiful  condition,  and  stifle  any  flickering 
sparks  of  ambition.  Smoking  is  called  the  poor 
man's  solace,  because  "  it  makes  him  contented 
with  his  lot."  That  is  one  of  its  very  mischiefs. 
He  has  no  business  to  be  contented.  He  is  living 
in  a  miserable  tenement,  and  in  the  most  meagre 
fashion,  when  he  might  be  owning  a  home  and 
educating  his  children.  But  there,  day  in  and  day 
out,  he  sits,  selfishly  and  stupidly  smoking  his 
pipe,  while  his  pinched  and  joyless  wife  patiently 
waits  on  him,  and  does  her  best  to  keep  the  wTolf 
from  the  door. 

As  for  the  refined  and  scholarly,  what  but  the 
strange  charms  of  this  narcotic  could  reconcile 
them  to  the  companionship  and  the  habits  to  which 
it  not  unfrequently  degrades  them? 

Says  Elizur  Wright:  "A  man  calling  himself  a 
gentleman,  with  all  the  outward   appointments  of 


SOCIAL    AND   ESTHETIC   VIEW.  175 

a  gentleman,  and  everything  but  the  smell  of  a 
gentleman,  will  do  in  your  house,  in  your  parlor, 
in  the  very  presence  of  ladies,  things  which,  if  not 
under  the  spell  of  tobacco,  no  money  would  have 
tempted  him  to  do." 

No  spot  is  too  sacred  for  the  encroachment  of 
the  tobacco-tyrant.  The  neat  ingrained  carpet  of 
}'our  guest-chamber  and  the  elegant  tapestry  of 
your  drawing-room  alike  bear  his  defiling  marks  ; 
and  with  all  your  painstaking  you  can  never  efface 
them. 

Writes  Horace  Greeley  :  "  I  have  intimated  that 
the  tobacco-consumer  is  not,  indeed,  necessarily 
and  inevitably,  but  naturally  and  usually,  a  black- 
guard ;  that  chewing  or  smoking  obviously  tends 
to  blackguardism.  Can  any  one  doubt  it?  .  .  Go 
into  a  public  gathering  where  a  speaker  of  delicate 
lungs  and  an  invincible  repugnance  to  tobacco  is 
trying  to  discuss  some  important  topic  so  that  a 
thousand  men  can  hear  and  understand  him,  yet 
whereinto  ten  or  twenty  smokers  have  introduced 
themselves, — a  long-nine  projecting  horizontally 
from  beneath  the  nose  of  each,  a  fire  at  one  end 
and  a  fool  at  the  other,  —  and  mark  how  the  puff, 
puffing  gradually  transforms  the  atmosphere  (none 
too  pure  at  the  best)  into  that  of  some  foul  and 
pestilential  cavern,  choking  the  utterance  of  the 
speaker  and  distracting  the  attention  of  the  hear- 
ers, until  the  argument  is  arrested  or  its  effect 
utterly  destroyed.  If  he  who  will  selfishly, 
recklessly,  impudently,  inflict  so  much  discomfort 


176  TOBACCO. 

or  annoyance  on  many,  in  order  that  he  may 
enjoy  in  a  particular  place  an  indulgence  which 
could  as  well  be  enjoyed  where  no  one  else  would 
be  affected  by  it,  be  not  a  blackguard,  who  can  be? 
What  conduct  would  indicate  bad  breeding  and  a 
bad  heart,  if  such  conduct  does  not?" 

Something,  however,  should  be  said  in  behalf  of 
the  smoker.  In  the  universal  practice  of  what  is 
the  joy  of  his  heart,  and  in  the  ready  tolerance,  if 
not  actual  encouragement,  of  some  of  our  own  sex, 
it  is  not  altogether  strange  that  he  becomes  incred- 
ulous as  to  the  ofTensiveness  of  his  deed.  More 
than  this,  it  is  one  of  the  tendencies  of  tobacco  to 
blunt  the  sensibilities.  In  a  recent  lecture  on  this 
narcotic,  R.  L.  Carpenter,  of  England,  dwells  em- 
phatically on  its  peculiar  influence  in  rendering  its 
devotees  indifferent  to  the  discomfort  of  others. 
fr  The  high-bred  nobleman  who  is  the  slave  of  to- 
bacco is,  in  that  respect,"  he  says,  "not  above  the 
smoker  who  blacks  his  boots." 

From  an  article  in  the  London  Times,  in  Sep- 
tember, 1879,  the  following  pertinent  remarks  are 
taken  :  v  There  is  a  reason  against  public  smoking, 
—  perhaps,  in  effect,  against  all  smoking.  —  which 
has  scarcely  received  sufficient  recognition.  It  is 
the  absolute  indifference  to  the  comfort  and  con- 
venience of  societv  at  lar^e  that  it  is  certain  to 
produce.  The  smoker  does  not  care  whether  you 
are  happy  or  miserable.  .  .  .  Smokers  monopolize 
for  more  than  their  share  of  our  railway  accommo- 
dation.      Their   exigency    knows   no   limits.      A 


SOCIAL    AND   ESTHETIC   VIEW.  177 

smoker  must  have  a  compartment  in  which  lie 
enjoys  the  free  exercise  of  his  privilege,  even  if  he 
have  it  all  to  himself  and  a  dozen  people  are  rush- 
ing about  the  platform,  looking  in  vain  for  room, 
the  guard's  whistle  already  sounding.  Tobacco  is 
a  powerful  drug,  administered  through  the  respira- 
tory organs,  that  is,  through  the  atmosphere  ;  and 
as  we  breathe  one  another's  atmosphere,  as  it  were, 
in  common  stock,  the  smoker  administers  his  drug 
to  all  about  him,  whether  they  wish  it  or  not.  The 
indifference  or  apathy  with  regard  to  the  comfort 
of  others  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  effects  of 
tobacco.  No  other  drug  will  produce  anything 
like  it.  The  opium-eater  does  not  compel  you  to 
eat  opium  with  him :  the  drunkard  does  not  com- 
pel you  to  drink.  The  smoker  compels  you  to 
smoke,  —  nay,  more,  to  breathe  the  smoke  he  has 
just  discharged  from  his  own  mouth." 

M  Tobacco  demoralizes,'"  says  Dr.  Parker.  "  It 
makes  a  man  careless  about  his  hair ;  he  lets  his 
nails  go  uncleaned ;  his  clothes  are  soiled ;  in  a 
word,  he  is  dirty." 

A  writer  in  Blackwood  asserts  "  that  tobacco  is 
the  favorite  filth  of  every  savage  life  within  the 
circumference  of  the  globe  ;  that  it  fills  the  atmos- 
phere of  the  continent  with  a  perpetual  stench ; 
.  .  .  that  it  is  in  its  own  nature  the  filthiest,  most 
foolish,  dullest,  and  most  disgusting  practice  on 
the  face  of  the  earth." 


178  TOBACCO. 


TOBACCO    VS.   WOMAN. 

Tobacco  is  the  relentless  foe  of  woman.  It 
withdraws  man  from  her  society,  and  makes  him 
glory  in  his  isolation,  thus  greatly  marring,  if  not 
positively  undermining,  the  relation  between  the 
sexes. 

In  the  words  of  Cowper,  — 

"  Thy  worst  effect  is  banishing  for  hours 
The  sex  whose  presence  civilizes  ours. 
They  dare  not  wait  the  riotous  abuse 
Thy  thirst-creating  streams,  at  length,  produce, 
When  wine  has  given  indecent  language  birth, 
And  forced  the  flood-gates  of  licentious  mirth." 

In  an  account  of  K  The  Founding  of  the  Atlantic 
Monthly"  which  appeared  in  the  Golden  Rule,  it 
is  stated  that  it  was  for  a  long  time  the  custom  for 
the  editor  and  chief  contributors  to  dine  together 
once  a  month.  After  giving  a  constellation  of 
illustrious  names  by  which  the  festival  was  usually 
honored,  it  is  said  :  f'  \Vhittier  came  rarely.  His 
health  was  always  delicate  .  .  .  and  he  was  evi- 
dently troubled  by  the  clouds  of  smoke  that 
succeeded  the  dinner.  Once,  only,  the  women- 
contributors  were  invited.  The  experiment  was 
not  repeated." 

The  tendency  of  this  habit  will  be  more  and 
more  to  separate  woman  from  man,  unless,  in  self- 
defence,  she,  too,  forms  the  habit,  and  learns  to 
revel  in  tobacco-smoke. 

Gentlemen,  wTould  you  hail  the  advent  of  such 
a  day  ? 


SOCIAL   AND    ^ESTHETIC    VIEW.  179 

Bulwer  writes  :  "  Woman  in  this  scale,  the  weed 
in  that.  Jupiter,  hang  out  thy  balance  and  weigh 
them  both ;  and  if  thou  give  the  preference  to 
woman,  all  I  can  say  is,  the  next  time  Juno  ruffles 
thee,  O  Jupiter,  try  the  weed." 

"The  fact  is,"  says  Thackeray,  "the  cigar  is  a 
rival  to  the  ladies,  and  their  conqueror,  too." 

"  What  is  the  real  attraction  of  these  gorgeous 
establishments?"  inquired  some  one  of  a  gentle- 
man, entering  a  new  club-house  on  Fifth  Avenue, 
New  York.  And  what  was  the  graceful  and  gal- 
lant reply?  "No  woman  can  enter  them.  Once 
within  these  sacred  walls,  we  are  safe  from  every- 
thing that  wears  a  petticoat."  "Are  we  getting  to 
be  Turks?"  the  narrator  adds.  "The  Turks  shut 
women  in,  Ave  shut  them  out."  No  wonder  that 
Parton  writes,  "  There  is  something  in  the  practice 
of  smoking  that  allies  a  man  with  barbarians,  and 
constantly  tends  to  make  him  think  and  talk  like 
a  barbarian." 

Is  such  a  disintegration  and  degradation  of  soci- 
ety in  this  nineteenth  century  of  the  world  a  thing 
to  glory  in  ? 

Sure  I  am  that,  were  the  tobacco-problem  fully 
comprehended,  every  true  woman  would  cease  to 
condone  so  grave  an  offence,  —  an  offence  which 
puts  in  jeopardy  the  health,  not  only  of  the  wrong- 
doer, but,  in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  that  of  his 
whole  family  ;  which  tends  to  lower  its  aesthetic 
and  social  tone,  and  involves  a  lengthening  train 
of  discomforts  and  miseries. 


180  TOBACCO. 

Very  dark  is  this  cloud  in  our  horizon.  In  true 
gallantry  American  mankind  is  ahead  of  all  the 
world.  Could  we  only  secure  this  earnestly 
coveted,  much-pray ed-for  reform,  it  would  add 
the  one  finishing  touch.  It  would  exalt  this  same 
American  into  the  ideal  gentleman.  But  where 
will  the  present  current  land  him  ? 

Wrote  Mary  Clemmer  in  the  Independent :  "  Gaz- 
ing on  the  average  American  who  crowds  the  cor- 
ridors  of  the  capitol  on  the  last  day  of  the  ses- 
sion, it  is  impossible  to  believe  him  the  fraction  of 
a  civilized  nation.  Nothing  in  their  way  could  be 
more  exquisite  than  the  staircases  of  tinted  marble 
leading  to  the  galleries  of  both  Senate  and  House. 
Yet  had  they  been  tottering  staircases  leading  to 
dens  of  dissipation  instead  of  to  the  highest  legis- 
lative chambers  of  the  nation,  they  could  not  be 
more  defiled.  From  base  to  summit  they  reek 
with  tobacco.  It  drips  from  their  edges  and  is 
piled  in  'quids'  in  their  corners,  while  the  spittoons 
that  line  the  way  would  disgrace  a  pot-house. 
With  tobacco  reeking  under  your  feet ;  tobacco 
spurting  diagonally  on  your  clothes  ;  tobacco  mak- 
ing the  air  blue  with  smoke  and  foul  with  smell, 
over  acres  of  marble  that  should  be  stainless  as 
your  conscience,  altogether  it  is  quite  sufficient  to 
make  you  doubt  the  civilization  of  the  people  who 
claim  to  be  the  mightiest  on  the  earth." 


MOKAL  AND  SPIRITUAL  VIEW. 


DETERIORATING   INFLUENCE. 

According  to  a  New  York  doctor,  "The  universal 
experience  of  all  mankind  will  attest,  and  the 
intelligent  observation  of  every  individual  will 
confirm,  the  statement  that,  precisely  in  the  ratio 
that  persons  indulge  in  narcotic  stimulants,  the 
mental  powers  are  unbalanced,  the  lower  propen- 
sities acquire  undue  and  inordinate  activity  at  the 
expense,  not  only  of  the  vital  stamina,  but  also  of 
the  moral  and  intellectual  nature.  The  whole  being 
is  not  only  perverted,  but  introverted  and  retro- 
verted.  Tobacco-using,  even  more  than  liquor- 
drinking  disqualifies  the  mind  for  exercising  its 
intuitions  concerning  the  right  and  wrong:  it 
degrades  the  moral  sense  below  the  intellectual 
recognitions." 

It  is  the  testimony  of  Dr.  Lizars  that  "in  some 
instances  the  starting-point  of  a  criminal  career 
dates  from  the  first  indulgence  of  the  tobacco-vice, 
—  producing  by  slow  degrees,  when  acting  upon 
a  constitution  still  extremely  flexible,  a  complete 

181 


182  TOBACCO. 

moral  and  intellectual  transformation  as  well  as 
physical  degeneracy." 

The  professors  in  the  University  and  High  School 
at  Ann  Arbor,  Michigan,  who  have  had  a  long 
experience  among  thousands  of  young  men,  regard 
this  weed  as  having  a  worse  effect  than  even  liquor, 
affirming  that  more  young  men  break  down  in  body 
and  mind,  and  finally  go  astray  as  a  result  of  smok- 
ing, than  of  drinking,  while  the  former  often  leads  to 
the  latter. 

Prof.  Moses  Stuart,  of  Andover,  who  at  one  time 
was  himself  a  user  of  the  weed,  writes:  "That 
it  undermines  the  health  of  thousands ;  that  it 
creates  a  nervous  irritability,  and  thus  operates  on 
the  temper  and  moral  character  of  men  :  that  it 
often  creates  a  thirst  for  spirituous  liquors  :  that  it 
allures  to  clubs  and  grog-shops  and  taverns ;  and 
finally,  that  it  is  a  very  serious  and  needless  expense, 
are  things  that  cannot  be  denied." 

Prof.  Mead,  of  Oberlin  :  w  The  tobacco  habit 
tends  to  deaden  the  sense  of  honor,  as  well  as  of 
decency ;  and  none  are  more  likely  to  practise  de- 
ception unscrupulously  than  those  who  use  the 
weed." 

In  the  same  spirit,  President  Bascom,  of  the  Wis- 
consin State  University,  affirms  that  "every  man 
who  uses  tobacco  is  in  one  degree  or  another 
enslaved  by  it.  The  habit  is  vulgar  and  low  in  all 
its  associations.  It  uniformly  degenerates  into 
that  which  can  only  be  fittingly  characterized  as 
filthy.     No  one  who  uses  tobacco  can  fully  escape 


MORAL   AND   SPIRITUAL   VIEW.  183 

the  taint.  His  breath  is  impregnated  with  it ;  his 
clothes  are  full  of  it ;  his  presence  is  a  constant 
reminder  of  it  to  delicate  organs.  The  use  of 
tobacco  is  an  unclean  habit  and  belongs  to  unclean 
persons.  There  are  few  spectacles  giving  a  more 
disgraceful  impression  of  our  civilization  than  that 
of  a  mere  lad  sporting  a  pipe  or  a  cigar  in  self- 
congratulatory  imitation  of  the  bad  habits  of  those 
older  in  years  than  himself,  but  alike  immature  in 
wisdom." 

A  physician  who  has  well  considered  the  matter, 
writes  :  "  I  believe  that  the  habit  of  using  tobacco 
in  various  forms  is  not  only  laying  the  foundation 
for  many  diseases  of  serious  character,  and  not 
easily  removed,  but  that  it  is  damaging  the  moral 
fibre  of  many  of  our  students." 

The  superintendent  of  the  Reform  School  at 
Westboro,  Mass.,  reports  that  all  the  boys  sent 
there  have  been  users  of  tobacco  ;  and  that  it  is  the 
one  thing  that  occasions  him  the  most  trouble,  and 
that  he  is  working  hardest  to  extirpate." 

Chancellor  Sims,  of  the  Syracuse  University : 
"  The  tobacco-habit  is  expensive,  offensive  to 
others,  and  deteriorating  to  the  one  indulging  in 
it." 

Dr.  Harris  :  "  There  is  not  another  practice  in 
civilized  society  that  will  so  directly  introduce  a 
young  man  to  vicious  associates  and  to  all  the 
haunts  of  wickedness,  as  do  the  unrebuked,  fashion- 
able habits  of  tobacco-using ;  nor  is  there  another 
article  of  luxury  that  so  secretly  and  yet  so  surely 


184  TOBACCO. 

saps  all  the  foundations  of  manliness  and  virtue. 
It  paves  the  way  to  every  vice,  and  tends  directly 
and  powerfully  to  habits  of  the  grossest  immoral- 
ity." 

CLERICAL   TOBACCO. 

"  But  good  men  smoke  and  chew  ! " 

The  more  's  the  pity.  There 's  no  use  in  blink- 
ing the  fact  that  many  Christians,  ministers  among 
them,  are  not  guiltless  in  this  matter.  The  very 
utmost  that  can  be  made  of  the  plea,  however,  is 
that  some  good  men  are  not  free  from  the  dominion 
of  very  bad  habits.  This,  unfortunately  is  no  new 
thing. 

Years  ago  the  use  of  intoxicating  liquors  was 
practised  and  approved  by  the  majority  of  clergy- 
men, one  or  more  of  them  being  now  and  then 
taken  home  drunk  from  some  association  or  con- 
vention dinner,  where  wines  abounded ;  but  pre- 
cisely because  drinking  was  in  such  good  repute 
was  there  the  more  pressing  need  of  bold  leaders 
to  raise  the  banner  of  reform. 

Let  us  not  use  the  goodness  of  a  man  as  a  gar- 
ment to  cover  his  sins,  little  or  great.  This  very 
goodness  brings  upon  him  a  tenfold  responsibility. 

A  rich  man,  in  acknowledging  the  receipt  of  one 
of  George  Trask's  tobacco  books,  sensibly  re- 
marks, — 

M  The  best  proofs  of  its  utility  should  be  its 
effects  upon  the  clergy.  \Ve  can  hardly  expect 
youth  to  refrain  from  tobacco  when  their  moral 
teachers  set  them  so  bad  an  example ;  when  you 


MORAL   AND   SPIRITUAL   VIEW.  185 

have  reformed  those  of  your  profession,  if  you  will 
apply  to  me,  I  will  give  fifty  dollars  to  reform  the 
rest  of  mankind." 

The  London  Christian  World,  after  commenting 
on  the  Spurgeon  case,  thus  closes  :  "  To  ourselves 
this  tobacco  pest  is  a  daily  martyrdom,  and  we 
could  earnestly  wish  that  every  Christian  teacher, 
at  all  events,  felt  no  desire  to  indulge  in  a  habit 
.  .  .  which  is  unquestionably  most  fearfully  de- 
structive, both  to  the  bodies  and  souls  of  tens  of 
thousands  of  our  young  men." 

Neal  Dow,  who  was  in  England  at  the  time  of 
the  Spurgeon-Pentecost  affair,  relates  that  he  was 
soon  after  a  guest  in  a  family  where  the  matter  came 
up.  The  father  told  him  that  by  long  and  painful 
labor  he  had  obtained  a  promise  from  his  son,  who 
was  a  great  smoker,  to  abandon  the  habit,  and 
that  he  had  kept  his  pledge  till  the  great  preach- 
er's declaration,  "I  shall  go  home  and  smoke  the 
best  cigar  I  have  got  to  the  glory  of  God."  After 
this  he  returned  to  his  cigar,    saying  that  Spur- 

sreon's  example  was  £Ood  enough  for  him.  Even 
o  too 

a  clergyman  pleads,  in  excuse  for  his  habit,  that 
"  Mr.  Spurgeon,  the  greatest  preacher  in  the  world, 
smokes." 

Since  then,  if  report  speaks  true,  this  "greatest 
preacher "  has  abandoned  his  cigar,  not,  as  we 
wish  he  had  done  years  ago,  from  religious  prin- 
ciple, but  because  he  was  driven  to  it  by  its  injuri- 
ous influence  upon  his  health.  A  similar  report 
prevails  as  to  some  of  our  great  American  preachers. 


186  TOBACCO. 

A  clergyman's  son  overheard  his  father  telling 
another  clergyman  that  he  could  never  write  well 
without  his  cigar.  Arguing  analogically,  the  boy 
naturally  inferred  the  same  thing  would  improve 
the  working  of  his  own  brains,  and  thus  better  en- 
able him  to  reach  the  head  of  his  class.  So,  stating 
his  reasons,  he  begged  for  a  cigar.  What  could 
that  father  do  ? 

Another  clergyman  walking  with  his  boy  of  six, 
and  meeting  a  group  of  young  smokers,  with 
cigar-stubs  and  broken  pipes  in  their  mouths, 
pointed  them  out  warningly  to  his  son,  declaring 
that  the  city  authorities  ought  to  break  up  such 
practices.  "  Is  n't  it  worse  for  a  man  to  smoke, 
father?  "  w  Do  you  think  it  is,  my  son?  "  "  Please 
father,  boys  would  n't  want  to  smoke  if  men  did  n't 
do  it."  The  arrow,  so  innocently  aimed,  hit  the 
mark.  "  I  threw  away  my  cigar,"  relates  the  father, 
"and  have  never  touched  tobacco  since." 

That  a  clergyman's  influence  is  greatly  impaired 
by  the  use  of  the  drug  is  painfully  evident.  A 
young  man  was  deeply  moved  by  the  eloquence 
of  a  preacher,  and  lingered  after  the  services  to 
speak  with  him  as  he  came  out,  but  when  he  saw 
him  spitting  tobacco-juice,  he  retired  in  disgust. 

A  lady  of  the  Episcopal  church,  who  had  come 
up  to  the  communion  altar,  on  seeing  the  rector 
take  a  quid  from  his  mouth  and  deposit  it  carefully 
on  a  chair,  was  impelled  to  withdraw,  shrinking  at 
the  very  thought  of  receiving  the  sacramental  cup 
from  such  hands. 


MORAL   AND   SPIRITUAL   VIEW.  187 

An  eminent  divine  relates  that  at  one  time  when 
walking  the  streets  of  the  city  where  he  resided, 
with  a  cigar  in  his  mouth,  he  met  an  infidel  ac- 
quaintance who  burst  into  laughter.  On  being 
challenged  as  to  the  cause  of  his  merriment,  he 
replied ;  —  "  Oh,  I  was  thinking  how  you  would 
look  going  up  to  meet  the  Lord  amid  wreaths  of 
tobacco-smoke,  and  with  that  cigar  in  your  mouth." 
Neither  the  infidel  nor  anyone  else  ever  again  saw 
a  cigar  in  that  man's  mouth.  It  was  a  case  of  in- 
stant conversion. 

To  show  to  what  grievous  indecorums  even  a  min- 
ister who  is  in  bondage  to  tobacco  may  be  driven, 
one  or  two  instances  are  related. 

At  the  close  of  a  revival  meeting  in  some  town 
in  Illinois,  the  preacher  who  was  conducting  it 
made  the  following  appeal :  "  As  I  am  a  great  lover 
of  tobacco,  I  would  be  very  thankful  if  some  kind 
friend  in  this  audience  would  present  me  with 
twenty-five  cents  or  a  half  dollar  that  I  may  supply 
my  wants  in  this  direction."  Had  tobacco  killed 
his  religion,  and  his  common  sense  as  well? 

A  negro  preacher  in  Richmond,  Va.,  thus 
sets  forth  his  view  of  heaven  :  "  My  brethern  and 
my  sistern,  you  ain't  a  gwine  to  have  to  pay  no 
ten  cents  a  plug  for  tobacco  there,  you  kin  get 
jist  as  much  pure  Golden  Leaf  as  you  wants,  and 
a  little  more ;  and  you  kin  chaw  and  chaw  and 
chaw  all  day  long,  and  it  won't  cost  you  a  cent." 
"  Not  a  cent !  "  came  exultantly  from  all  parts  of 
the  little  church. 


138  TOBACCO. 

What  an  idea  of  future  blessedness  ! 

As  an  offset  to  this  may  be  given  the  following, 
which  was  delivered  on  the  stage  at  St.  Louis  :  — 

The  circus  preacher  told  the  crowd  that  "  there 
are  some  professors  of  the  pure  principles  of  Christ, 
so  tilth v  from  the  use  of  tobacco,  that  if  the  Lord 
put  him  on  sentinel  duty,  when  they  arrived  at  the 
haven  Moody  tells  of,  he  would  keep  them  quaran- 
tined outside  the  pearly  gates  until  they  were 
aired,  and  the  cleansing  angel  had  had  time  to  per- 
fume them,  in  order  that  they  might  be  fitted  to 
enter  into  the  presence  of  a  pure  and  holy  God." 

It  is  a  relief  to  indicate  the  better  side  of  minis- 
terial influence. 

A  well-known  preacher,  who  had  renounced  the 
weed  on  assuming  the  charge  of  a  metropolitan 
church,  found  that  a  large  number  of  his  members 
were  enslaved  to  the  appetite.  His  efforts  against 
it  were  so  earnest,  that,  when  he  left  the  church, 
out  of  nine  hundred  members  only  one  remained 
its  victim.  With  his  smoking  successor,  however, 
the  people  lapsed  again  into  the  old  bondage. 

Some  years  ago,  an  eminent  divine  from  the  Old 
World  was  invited  to  deliver  a  course  of  lectures 
in  the  virtuous  old-fashioned  town  of  Oberlin. 
Before  the  course  was  completed,  his  supply  of 
chewing-tobacco  was  exhausted.  Making  his  ex- 
tremity known  to  the  professor  in  whose  family  he 
was  a  guest,  he  requested  that  a  supply  might  be 
procured  for  him. 

As  no  use  of  the  weed  by  professor  or  student  is 


MORAL    AND    SPIRITUAL    VIEW.  189 

tolerated  in  that  institution,  his  host  was  in  a  predic- 
ament. Should  he,  in  defiance  of  law  himself  pur- 
chase the  forbidden  article  ?  Or,  not  venturing  on 
this,  should  he  delegate  the  commission  to  one  of  the 
students  ?  He  decided  on  the  only  right  step.  Seek- 
ing the  room  of  his  distinguished  guest,  he  frankly 
explained  that  he  could  not  supply  his  wants  without 
breaking  the  rule  which,  from  the  beginning,  had 
been  observed  by  all  the  teachers  and  twenty 
thousand  pupils. 

The  good  doctor  made  answer  that  he  should 
not  bring  dishonor  upon  the  rule  while  he  was  in 
that  pure  atmosphere. 

It  can  hardly  be  pleasant  to  a  D.D.,  and  perhaps 
LL.D.  to  boot,  to  have  it  bruited  abroad :  K  He 
is  an  extraordinary  man  ;  but  he  is  also  an  extraor- 
dinary smoker,  his  study  being  sometimes  perfectly 
black  with  smoke.  He  is  a  great  and  a  good 
man ;  but  he  will  smoke  a  pipe.  He  is  a  fine 
preacher ;  but  then  he  goes  through  the  streets 
puffing  a  cigar." 

Eloquence  and  tobacco  flowing  from  the  same  lips 
—  the  eloquence,  perchance,  born  of  the  narcotic  ! 
To  many  a  hearer  the  edge  of  the  sermon  is  blunted 
by  his  knowledge  that  the  preacher  has  a  quid 
adroitly  hidden  in  his  mouth.  The  more  devout 
the  man,  the  more  deplorable  the  conjunction. 

During  the  sessions  of  a  religious  body,  it  is  not 
uncommon  to  see  ministers  smoking  in  the  vesti- 
bule, while  the  committee-rooms  are  saturated  with 
tobacco-fumes. 


190  TOBACCO. 

Says  James  Partem  :  K  Clergymen  hurry  out  of 
church  to  tin  el  momentary  relief  for  their  tireel 
throats  in  an  ecstatic  smoke,  and  carry  into  the 
apartment  of  fair  invalids  the  odor  of  ex-cigars.  .  . 
A  parishioner  who  wishes  to  confer  upon  his  minis- 
ter—  if  a  smoker — a  real  pleasure,  can  hardly  do 
a  safer  thin^  than  send  him  a  thousanel  cigars  of  a 
good  clerical  brand.  It  is  particularly  agreeable 
to  a  clergyman  to  receive  a  present  which  supplies 
him  with  a  luxury  he  loves,  but  in  which  he  knows 
in  his  inmost  soul  he  ought  not  to  indulge." 

I  cannot  forbear  to  enrote  here  one  or  two  pas- 
sages from  the  satirical  remonstrance  of  "A  Smok- 
ing Minister."  In  writing  to  The  Advance,  he 
says,  — 

"I  had  hoped,  it  seemed  vainly,  that,  after  the 
death  of  Mr.  Trask,  no  more  unjust  and  exagge- 
rated statements  and  no  innuenelos  and  covert 
reflections  upon  us  who  puff  and  chew  would  be 
admitted  into  the  newspapers,  or  prayer-meetings, 
or  the  pulpit.  I  write  while  smarting  under  some 
spoken  and  some  implied  criticisms  that  have 
touched  my  sensitiveness." 

After  enumerating  at  length  the  manifold  bene- 
fits he  has  derived  from  tobacco,  he  sums  up,  — 

"  If  I  am  deprived  of  my  usual  smoke,  my  nerves 
are  so  unstrung  that  I  am  unfitted  for  any  utterance 
elemanding  consecutive  thought,  accurate  expres- 
sion, anel  deep  religious  feeling.  It  only  aggra- 
vates my  elifficulty  to  have  it  referred  to  in  the 
Sabbath-School,  or  prayer-meeting,  or  the  pulpit. 


MORAL   AND   SPIRITUAL   VIEW.  191 

"  I  do  not,  however,  object  to  a  quiet  discussion 
of  the  subject  in  ministers'  meetings,  if  the  major- 
ity are  smokers  and  are  very  witty.  I  am  a  Con- 
gregationalist,  from  conviction  and  early  training : 
but  I  have  seriously  thought  of  joining  the  Pres- 
byterians, as  I  have  heard  that,  while  they  are 
strict  in  doctrine,  they  are  more  liberal  than  we 
are  in  the  non-essentials  of  practice.  If  The 
Advance  would  use  its  influence  to  have  all  the 
public  or  printed  allusions  to  this  trivial  and 
entirely  personal  matter  abated,  it  would  be  a 
great  relief  to  me  and  many  brethren,  in  the 
ministry  and  out.  Indeed  it  might  save  us  to 
the  denomination." 

It  is  stated  on  good  authority  that  a  well-known 
divine,  on  arranging  to  give  a  lecture  to  the  young 
ladies  of  a  certain  academy,  agreed  to  take  in  pay- 
ment for  his  service  a  box  of  the  best  Spanish  cigars. 
The  lecture  was  delivered ;  the  cigars  were  made 
over  and  the  debt  was  thus  squared. 

I  am  tempted  to  give  a  few  humorous  but  very  per- 
tinent passages  from  a  letter  purporting  to  be  written 
by  a  zealous  deacon  to  his  offending  pastor  :  —  "I 
don 't  know  the  Hebrew  for  terbakker,  but  I  know 
what  terbakker  is,  to  my  sorror ;  and  I  'm  agin 
it  ...  In  the  space  of  six  years  grandfather  took 
over  three  hundred  cuds  out  of  Parson  Hawker's 
pulpit.  He  thought  he  would  collect  'em  as  a  sort 
of  ecclesyasticle  curiosity.  Sometimes  he  found 
'em  on  the  floor,  sometimes  on  the  seat  or  cush- 
ion, sometimes  on  the  Bible,  and  now  and  then, 


192  TOBACCO. 

as  a  mark  in  the  him  book.  .  .  .  And  now,  sir, 
I'll  say  a  few  words  about  them  spittoons  that  the 
young  ladies  were  agoin'  to  present  you  on  New 
Year's  day.  I  went  to  three  of  the  gentlemen 
whose  darters  was  most  perminent  in  the  bisness, 
and  asked  'em  if  they  would  be  so  good  as  to  meet 
me  on  Monday  mornin'  at  the  meeting-house,  and 
bring  their  darters.  So  they  said  they  would.  I 
told  'em  it  seemed  to  come  nat'ral  to  you  to  spit 
off  broadcast,  and  no  spittoon  smaller  than  the 
pulpit  would  be  of  any  use.  I  them  told  'em  I 
hadn't  yet  cleaned  the  pulpit,  but  left  it  for  them 
to  examine,  just  as  it  was  arter  you  had  operated. 
I  asked  'em  to  step  up  and  look  at  it.  On  Monday 
they  came.  They  all  looked  in,  and  agreed  they 
would  n't  have  believed  that  one  minister  could 
have  done  it  without  assistance.  Old  Col.  Pickets 
was  the  last  to  go  up;  and  when  he  came  down,  he 
shook  his  head,  and  said  it  did  n't  smell  Orthodox. 
It's  been  proposed  by  some,  instead  of  a  pulpit, 
to  have  a  raised  platform,  with  nothin '  round  it, 
so  that  every  secret  thing  shall  be  brought  to  light. 
Father  Cleverly,  who's  amazin'  quick  for  a  text, 
said,  in  such  case  you  might  well  preach  from  the 
latter  part  of  Isaiah,  1:6.  f  I  hid  not  my  face 
from  shame  and  spitting.'  " 

If  such  things  are  possible  with  clergymen,  what 
better  can  we  look  for  in  church-officers  and  Sun- 
day-school teachers?  One  writes  of  a  certain  dea- 
con that  he  has  many  a  time  seen  him,  in  church, 
fill  his  pipe  and  take  out  a  match,  waiting  with 


MORAL   AND    SPIRITUAL    VIEW.  193 

evident  impatience  till  the  meeting  was  dismissed, 
when  the  pipe  was  instantly  lighted,  and  every- 
body assailed  with  its  odors. 

When  the  news  was  sprung  upon  a  little  village 
in  Ohio,  that  an  old  and  respected  deacon  was 
attacked  with  delirium  tremens,  no  wonder  that 
consternation  seized  the  residents.  Nevertheless, 
the  report  was  true,  and  after  several  attacks  the 
good  man  died,  a  victim  of  tobacco. 

A  Sunday-School  scholar  begged  to  be  removed 
to  another  class,  but  declined  to  give  his  reasons 
till,  being  urged,  he  confessed  that  he  couldn't 
endure  the  tobacco-breath  of  his  teacher. 

A  student  who  went  from  Yale  College  to  Union 
Theological  Seminary  there  learned  to  smoke,  — 
when  he  expressed  his  regret  that  he  had  n't  learned 
sooner,  "  thus  securing  years  of  delight."  In  all 
fairness,  however,  it  should  be  added  that  his  habit 
was  formed  in  intercourse  with  fellow-students 
fresh  from  college,  and,  with  a  single  exception, 
from  Yale. 

While  it  is  true  that  a  number  of  young  men 
have  given  up  tobacco  during  their  course  in  Union 
Seminary,  it  must  be  admitted  that  at  least  one  of 
the  students,  a  man  of  abilities  and  earnest  piety, 
and  who  offered  himself  to  the  foreign  field,  was 
unfortunately  both  a  smoker  and  a  chewer.  In 
speaking  of  this  case,  a  young  theologue  perti- 
nently remarks  :  M  It  has  been  my  feeling  that  it 
would  be  much  better  if,  while  he  lays  down  his 
life  at  his  Master's  feet,  he  would  also  give  up  this 


194  TOBACCO. 

indulgence  for  his  Master's  sake.  I  cannot  get  rid 
of  the  notion  of  incongruity  between  a  pure  heart 
and  a  foul  mouth;  a  breath  now  laden  with  the 
utterance  of  inspired  truth,  and  now  with  fumes 
of  tobacco." 

Think  of  a  smoking  clergyman  standing  at  the 
communion  table,  on  which  are  spread  the  emblems 
of  that  self-sacrificing  Love  that  surpasses  mortal 
conception  !  Think  of  him  as  ministering  to  suffer- 
ing and  disease  ;  —  as  approaching  the  bedside  of 
a  sick  member  of  his  flock,  and  being  feebly  waved 
away  because  of  the  offensive  odor  radiating  from 
his  whole  person  !  A  dying  woman  was  so  affected 
by  the  tobacco-breath  of  her  pastor  as  he  leaned 
down  and  talked  with  her,  that  she  begged  her 
friends  to  employ  at  her  funeral  a  minister  who 
would  breathe  no  poison  over  her  coffin. 

A  gentleman  who  had  listened  with  deep  in- 
terest to  a  powerful  sermon  from  a  distinguished 
theological  professor,  was  greatly  surprised  the 
next  day  to  see  him  smoking  a  cigar,  and  confessed 
that  the  sight  destroyed  the  impression  of  the 
sermon.  He  adds, — "A  young  man  trying  to 
reform  from  this  habit  remarked  to  me,  — f  Never 
say  anything  against  it  again,  when  a  man  who  can 
preach  such  a  sermon  as  that  was  yesterday  in- 
dulges in  it.'" 

Says  a  well-known  clergyman  in  addressing  his 
brethren,  —  w  Do  you  say,  — f  I  am  not  going,  be- 
cause there  are  weak  men  in  this  world,  to  deny 
myself  any   lawful   and   proper  pleasure.'     Then 


MORAL    AND    SPIRITUAL    VIEW.  195 

you  are  not  fit  to  be  a  preacher  and  a  disciple  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

In  a  discourse  to  the  graduating  class  at  Williams 
College,  President  Hopkins,  after  some  prelimi- 
nary remarks  on  the  use  of  tobacco,  thus  sums  up  : 
"I  may  express  to  you  my  conviction  that  habitual 
narcotic  stimulation  of  the  brain  is  not  compatible 
with  the  fullest  consecration  of  the  body  as  a 
temple  of  God.  Good  men  may  do  this  in  ig- 
norance, as  other  things  prevalent  at  times  have 
been  done,  and  not  offend  their  consciences ;  but 
I  believe  that  greater  earnestness,  more  self-scru- 
tiny, fuller  light,  would  reveal  its  incompatibility 
with  full  consecration  and  sweep  it  entirely  away. 
The  present  position  on  this  point  of  the  Christian 
Church  as  a  whole,  and  largely  of  the  Christian 
ministry,  I  regard  as  obstructive  of  the  highest 
manhood  and  of  the  spread  of  spiritual  religion. 
I  know  that  strong  men  have  in  this  connection 
been  bound  as  in  fetters  of  brass,  and  cast  down 
from  high  places,  and  have  found  premature 
prostration  and  a  premature  grave,  and  that  this 
process  is  going  on  now.  Let  me  say,  therefore, 
to  those  of  you  who  expect  to  be  ministers,  that  I 
believe  that  sermons,  even  those  called  great  ser- 
mons, which  are  the  product  of  alcoholic  or  nar- 
cotic stimulation,  are  a  service  of  God  by  f  strange 
fire ; '  and  that  for  men  to  be  scrupulous  about 
their  attire  as  clerical,  and  yet  to  enter  upon 
religious  services  with  narcotized  bodies  and  a 
breath   that  'smells   to   heaven'  of  anything  but 


196  TOBACCO. 

incense,  is  an  incongruity  and  an  offence,  a  crop- 
ping out  of  the  old  Phariseeism  that  made  clean 
f  the  outside  of  the  cup  and  the  platter.'  Xot  that 
abstinence  has  merit  or  secures  consecration  ;  it  is 
only  its  best  condition." 

Consider  what  an  almost  insuperable  obstacle 
the  tobacco-example  of  clergymen  opposes  to  the 
efforts  of  Christian  parents  and  teachers  against 
this  evil  in  their  children  and  pupils  ! 

Dr.  Higginbottom,  an  English  physician,  testi- 
fies :  "  After  fifty  years  of  most  extensive  and 
varied  practice  in  my  profession,  I  have  come  to 
the  decision  that  smoking  is  a  main  cause  of  ruin- 
ing our  young  men,  pauperizing  the  working-men, 
and  rendering  comparatively  useless  the  best 
efforts  of  the  ministers  of  religion." 

In  the  session  of  a  district  Congregational  con- 
vention held  in  Wisconsin,  a  layman  made  an  ad- 
dress on  the  subject,  "  What  the  pews  want  from 
the  pulpit."  Towards  the  close  he  said,  "The 
example  set  by  some  of  the  pulpits  in  the  use  of 
tobacco  is  strongly  objected  to  by  many  of  the 
occupants  of  the  pews.  The  Wisconsin  State 
Congregational  Convention,  at  its  annual  session 
in  1869,  declared,— 

"  The  common  use  of  tobacco  is  an  offensive 
practice  to  persons  of  neatness  and  refinement, 
hindering  the  influence  of  those  who  use  it ;  it  is 
a  wasteful  practice,  using  money  that  is  needed 
for  other  purposes  ;  it  is  a  practice  injurious  to 
health  of  body  and  mind ;  it  is  a  practice  of  in- 


MORAL    AND    SPIRITUAL   VIEW.  197 

jurious  moral  tendency ;  and  it  is  setting  a  mis- 
chievous example  to  our  youth. 

"If  what  the  State  Convention  said  in  1869  is 
true,  then  the  pews  say,  without  any  hesitation  or 
mental  reservation,  that  no  man  who  is  in  the  habit 
of  using  tobacco  ought  to  enter  the  pulpit  to  preach 
the  Gospel  as  a  minister  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
until  he  renounces  the  habit. 

"  It  may  seem  hard  to  say  it,  dear  Christian 
brother,  but  it  is  none  the  less  true  that  the  know- 
ledge that  you  were  in  the  habit  of  using  tobacco 
would  completely  destroy  your  influence,  and 
render  it  impossible  for  you  to  do  any  good  to  a 
large  portion  of  many  of  the  Christian  congre- 
gations of  the  land,  should  you  stand  in  their  pres- 
ence to  speak  as  a  Christian  minister." 

Bishop  Huntington,  of  Syracuse,  writes:  "I 
could  give  you  many  reasons  why  the  use  of  this 
narcotic  seems  to  me  especially  incongruous  with 
the  calling  of  the  ministry,  which  it  is  a  large  part 
of  my  duty  to  guard.  Among  them  are  a  waste  of 
money,  an  injury  to  health,  the  offence  sometimes 
given  physically  to  sick  or  sensitive  persons,  the 
moral  harm  done  to  tender  consciences,  the  lower- 
ing of  the  sacred  office  in  their  estimation,  and  a 
check  put  upon  ministerial  usefulness." 

MISSIONARY-TOBACCO. 

"  What  reception  may  we  suppose  the  apostles 
would  have  met  with,"  inquires  Dr.  Rush,  "had 
they  carried  into  the  houses  where  they  were  sent 


198  TOBACCO. 

snuff-boxes,  pipes,  cigars,  and  bundles  of  cut,  or 
rolls  of  pigtail,  tobacco?" 

The  missionaries  in  some  of  our  stations  are 
greatly  embarrassed  in  their  efforts  against  tobacco 
by  the  influence  in  its  favor  of  so  many  Christians 
in  this  country.  When  the  native  converts  quote 
the  honored  American  Reverends,  Professors,  and 
Doctors  of  Divinity  whom  they  have  heard  named 
as  addicted  to  the  weed,  the  missionaries  are 
struck  dumb  with  sorrow  and  shame. 

But  what  shall  be  said  —  what  can  be  said — con- 
cerning any  such  missionaries  as  are  themselves  in 
bondage  to  this  habit  ?  Let  them  learn  a  lesson  from 
a  young  colored  missionary,  once  a  slave.  Dur- 
ing the  examination  in  reference  to  his  oroinor  to 
Africa,  some  one  inquired  as  to  his  use  of  the  drug. 
He  made  answer  that  he  was  free  from  this  habit,  — 
rr  that  a  gentleman  would  not  use  tobacco  and  that 
a  Christian  gentleman  would  not  wish  to  use  it." 

Mr.  Rand,  of  the  Mieronesian  Mission,  writes; 
ff  Much  as  we  need  help  in  the  Caroline  Islands, 
we  had  rather  work  there  alone  than  to  have  the 
best  of  men  come  to  our  aid,  if  he  uses  tobacco." 

TEMPERANCE    AND    TOBACCO. 

With  what  conscience  can  a  temperance  man 
who  is  unwilling  to  give  up  his  tobacco  urge 
drunkards  to  give  up  their  drink,  especially  when 
it  is  the  prevailing  testimony  of  medical  authori- 
ties that  tobacco-using  leads  naturally  to  liquor- 
drinking,  that  it  is  the  " facilis  descensus  Averni" 


MORAL   AND   SPIRITUAL   VIEW.  199 

and  that  multitudes  of  reformed  inebriates  have 
fallen  again  by  its  use?  In  point  here  is  the  wish 
of  the  poor,  doubly-wronged  Indian :  M I  want 
three  things,  —  all  the  rum  in  the  world,  all  the 
tobacco  in  the  world,  and  then  more  rum.  I 
smoke,  because  it  makes  me  love  to  drink." 

A  reformed  inebriate,  in  relating  how  he  first 
signed  the  pledge,  says:  "I  soon  found  that  in 
renouncing  one  stimulant  I  used  a  double  quantity 
of  another ;  or,  in  the  words  of  Theodore  Weld,  I 
had  f  swapped  brandy  for  tobacco.'  Then,  im- 
pelled by  the  feeling,  c  drink  I  must,  and  drink  I 
will,'  I  went  back  to  the  gutter."  Two  years  later, 
hearing  a  lecturer  affirm  that  the  Washingtonians 
who  apostatized  were  tobacco-sots  almost  to  a 
man,  and  that  the  pledge,  to  be  safe,  must  inter- 
dict both  drug  and  drink,  he  took  the  double 
pledge,  and  had  remained  firm,  but  with  an  in- 
creasing conviction  that  "  you  can't  cure  a  drunk- 
ard while  a  slave  to  his  pipe ." 

To  the  same  effect,  Dr.  Justin  Edwards  de- 
clared :  "Not  much  more  can  be  done  in  behalf  of 
the  temperance  cause  till  there  is  an  anti-narcotic 
movement,  particularly  against  tobacco,  the  hand- 
maid and  ally  of  intemperance." 

Says  the  well-known  temperance-worker,  E.  C. 
Delavan :  "I  have  had  my  fears  for  the  safety 
of  the  temperance  cause  through  the  insidious 
influence  of  tobacco.  It  is  my  opinion  that  while 
its  use  continues,  intemperance  will  continue  to 
curse  the  world." 


200  TOBACCO. 

It  is  the  testimony  of  Jerry  McAuley,  who  has 
rescued  multitudes  from  drunkenness,  that  it  is 
extremely  rare  to  rind  a  reformed  man  that  con- 
tinues a  slave  to  tobacco  who  does  not  fall  back 
into  the  gutter.  This  fact  is  so  patent  that  it  is 
coming:  more  and  more  to  be  taken  for  granted 
that  the  converts  in  his  mission,  when  giving  up 
drink,  will  also  give  up  the  weed.  The  case  is 
related  of  one  who,  being  persuaded  to  smoke  a 
single  cigar,  relapsed  into  drunkenness. 

Says  Dr.  Stephenson  :  f*  The  use  of  tobacco  is 
one  great  leading-step  towards  intemperance.  But 
it  is  a  lamentable  fact  that  very  many  who  stand 
the  most  prominent  in  the  temperance  reform  are 
grossly  intemperate  in  the  use  of  tobacco." 

A  noted  temperance-worker  in  Illinois,  who  was 
a  votary  of  the  weed,  was  induced  by  a  Methodist 
clergyman  to  sign  a  pledge  of  total  abstinence. 
But  the  man  who  waxed  so  eloquent  in  urging 
inebriates  to  forswear  the  demon  of  drink  found 
himself  enslaved  to  as  remorseless  a  tyrant,  and 
broke  his  pledge  again  and  again. 

George  Trask  writes:  "I  have  known  a  tem- 
perance lecturer  of  great  distinction  positively 
refuse  to  lecture  till  he  had  been  furnished  with  a 
pipe  of  tobacco  to  screw  his  nerves  up  to  the  point 
of  eloquence." 

So  enslaved  do  these  victims  become  that,  in 
spite  of  all  remonstrance,  of  all  propriety,  they 
will  smoke,  not  only  in  parlors  and  in  halls,  but, 
strangest  of  all,  in  temperance  meetings.    Indeed, 


MORAL   AND   SPIRITUAL   VIEW.  201 

a  certain  lodge  of  the  Sons  of  Temperance  passed 
a  resolution  that  they  would  not  lay  aside  their 
tobacco  even  during  the  hour  they  were  gathered 
for  temperance  purposes  !  !  God  be  praised  that 
woman's  crusade  against  intemperance  has  never 
been  set  back  by  any  such  marvellous  incon- 
sistency ! 

The  author  of  Temperance  Tales  tells  a  story  of 
the  accredited  agent  of  a  temperance  society.  He 
was  one  day  soliciting  contributions  with  tobacco 
in  his  mouth,  when  he  was  accosted  by  a  gentle- 
man, — "  You,  sir,  are  not  a  proper  person  to  be  an 
agent  in  the  cause  of  temperance,  for  you  are  not 
a  temperance  man  yourself;  you  are  enslaved  to 
tobacco."  No  answer  was  made ;  but  some  one 
present  afterwards  told  the  rebuker  that  the  lec- 
turer was  one  of  the  very  best  men  in  the  country. 
He  was  surprised  to  hear  this,  and  would  have 
sent  an  apology,  had  he  known  the  agent's  ad- 
dress. Some  time  after,  meeting  this  same  agent, 
looking  like  a  different  man,  he  was  beginning:  to 
apologize,  when  he  was  interrupted,  —  "No  apol- 
ogy is  needed.  Your  reproof  led  to  much  reflec- 
tion and  to  new  resolutions.  As  the  consequence, 
you  behold  me  to-day  a  free  man  ;  and  you  are 
my  deliverer." 

Gough,  who  became  a  temperance-lecturer  while 
still  a  smoker,  relates  that  on  his  way  to  an  out- 
door meeting  a  friend  offered  him  cigars.  "No,  I 
thank  you  ;  I  have  nowhere  to  put  them."  "You 
can  put  half  a  dozen  in  your  cap."     This  he  did, 


202  TOBACCO. 

and  so,  soon  ascending  the  platform,  addressed  two 
thousand  children.  To  avoid  taking  cold,  he  kept 
on  his  cap,  forgetting  what  it  contained.  At  the 
close  he  exclaimed,  "Xow,  boys,  let  us  give  three 
rousing  cheers  for  temperance."  Lifting  his  hat, 
he  waved  it  vigorously,  flinging  the  cigars  right 
and  left  at  his  audience  !  !  And  it  is  not  strange 
that  this  occurrence  set  him  thinking. 

At  a  later  period,  being  a  guest  at  an  English 
house,  he  sought  the  river-bank  for  a  quiet  smoke. 
Finding  it  difficult  to  light  his  cigar,  he  got  down 
on  his  knees  by  a  rock,  sheltering  a  match  with 
his  hat,  while  he  puffed.  Suddenly  the  thought 
flashed  on  him  that,  if  people  should  see  him,  they 
would  conclude  that  he  had  sought  this  spot  for 
private  devotion.  "  And  what  am  I  doing?  What 
would  the  audience  say  who  heard  me  last 
night?"  The  conviction  of  his  inconsistency 
struck  him  so  forcibly  that  he  exclaimed,  "I  '11 
have  no  more  of  it ;  "  and  away  into  the  river  went 
both  matches  and  cigars. 

TOBACCO    BONDAGE. 

It  is  seldom  that  we  find  one  who  entirely  justifies 
himself  in  the  tobacco  habit,  while  many  and  many 
a  good  man  groans  under  his  self-imposed  bondage 
—  a  bondage  not  one  whit  less  degrading  because 
of  the  high  standing  and  excellent  Christian  char- 
acter of  the  victim.  The  wonder  is  how  anyone 
can  forbear  groaning,  and  repenting,  and  forsaking. 

A  clergyman,  enslaved  to  snuff,  labored  with  a 


MORAL   AND   SPIRITUAL   VIEW.  203 

drunkard.  "If  you  will  give  up  your  snuff,  I 
will  give  up  my  rum."  The  minister  assented ; 
but  within  two  days  was  in  agonies  for  his  idol. 
Setting  a  watch  over  the  drunkard,  the  moment  he 
learned  that  the  cup  had  passed  his  lips,  he  seized 
his  snuff-box,  and  shortly  after  died  in  idiocy. 

"Why  did  you  send  me  that  pamphlet  on  smok- 
ing?" said  a  pastor  to  a  friend.  "Because  I 
thought  you  needed  it."  "Who  told  you  that  I 
smoked?"  "You  told  me  as  you  go  about." 
"  I  will  confess  that  I  know  it  is  wrong,  and  that 
I  once  gave  it  up ;  but,  fool  as  I  am,  I  took  to  it 
again,  and  I  have  been  in  bondage  ever  since." 

An  eminent  minister  exclaimed:  "I  would 
gladly  lay  down  a  hundred  pounds  if  I  could  give 
up  smoking." 

"Oh,"  exclaimed  a  sufferer,  "I  need  tobacco  to 
give  me  resolution  to  give  up  tobacco." 

"  I  would  give  half  my  farm  to  get  rid  of  this 
master,"  declared  another. 

"I  have  given  up  my  pipe  a  dozen  times,  and 
then  returned  to  it,"  said  a  third  victim.  "I  will 
try  no  more." 

So  imperious  is  the  appetite,  that  during  our  civil 
war  men  were  sometimes  shot  by  the  enemy 
simply  because  they  would  strike  a  light  and 
smoke.  And  many  risked  capture  in  their  peril- 
ous search  after  what  smokers  call  "a  little  fire." 

"I  know  my  pipe  is  injuring  me,"  a  young  man 
confessed,  "  but  were  I  certain  that  it  would  cur- 
tail my  life  fifteen  years,  I  could  not  give  it  up." 


204  TOBACCO. 

A  prominent  physician,  who  himself  both  smokes 
and  chews,  is  honest  enough  to  admit  that  "  tobacco 
is  too  deadly  a  poison  to  be  used  even  as  a  medi- 
cine ; "  and  declares  that  he  "  would  give  five 
hundred  dollars  to  he  free  from  the  habit."  Yet 
he  chews  and  smokes  on. 

A  Christian  professor,  in  her  dying  agonies, 
repeatedly  entreated  her  friends,  "  Give  me  snuff, 
give  me  snuff."     They  were  her  last  words. 

Earnestly  implored  to  give  up  the  filthy  weed,  a 
clergyman  made  answer,  ff  Not  I !  I  will  smoke 
if  it  shortens  my  life  seven  years.  I  will  live 
while  I  do  live." 

A  lip-cancer,  which  had  been  occasioned  through 
smoking,  was  removed  by  a  physician.  "  Twenty- 
four  hours  after  the  operation,"  says  the  doctor,  "I 
found  the  patient  propped  up  in  bed,  with  his 
face  bound  up  on  one  side  and  a  pipe  on  the  other 
side  of  his  mouth." 

George  Trask  writes:  "I  have  known  men  to 
dream  and  rage  about  tobacco  like  madmen  when 
deprived  of  it.  I  know  an  excellent  clergyman, 
who  assured  me  that  he  had  sometimes  wept  like  a 
child  when  putting  a  quid  into  his  mouth,  under  a 
sense  of  his  degradation  and  bondage.  I  know 
a  man  who  confessed  that  tobacco  Avas  the  dearest 
thing  on  earth,  dearer  than  wife,  child,  church,  or 
state." 

Pitiable  thraldom  !     Bound  hand  and  foot ! 

It  takes  the  very  manhood  out  of  one.  Dr. 
Henderson  relates  the  case  of  a  member  of  Con- 


MORAL    AND    SPIRITUAL    VIEW.  205 

gross,  who,  from  having  been  a  man  of  force  and 
fearlessness,  became,  to  use  his  own  words,  w  Sick 
all  over,  and  timid  as  a  girl."  Though  he  had  long 
been  a  practising  lawyer,  he  had  not  nerve  enough 
to  present  a  petition  to  Congress,  and  still  less  to 
say  a  word  concerning  it.  Indeed,  he  grew  to  be 
such  a  coward  that  he  was  afraid  to  be  alone  at 
night. 

Tobacco-fetters !  oh,  it  makes  one's  heart  ache 
to  witness  the  vain  stru^oles  to  break  them  !  I 
have  known  a  young  man  of  line  natural  instincts, 
under  a  strong  pressure,  resolve  over  and  over 
again  to  burst  his  chains.  It  was  pitiful  to  note  his 
struggles  and  his  falls,  with  his  keen  self-abase- 
ment at  his  repeated  failures,  till  finally,  in  a  sort 
of  moody  despair,  he  gave  up  the  attempt. 

A  deacon,  on  his  death-bed,  exclaimed:  "I 
thank  God  that,  as  my  last  sickness  has  come,  I 
shall  be  rid  of  this  hankering  for  tobacco." 

M  You  are  wasting  away  under  it,"  pleaded  one 
minister  with  another.  "Alas!  my  brother,  it  is 
true  ;  but  I  cannot  help  it."  "  Would  you  take 
that  excuse  from  a  sinner?"  "I  cannot  answer 
you.  I  cannot  leave  it  off.  It  is  out  of  the  ques- 
tion ;  I  cannot.  I  feel  what  you  say ;  but  — " 
The  poor  slave  to  this  appalling  appetite  died  soon 
after. 

THE    YOKE    BROKEN. 

In  contrast  with  this  melancholy  instance  it  is 
cheering  to  read  the  experience  of  Dr.  S.  H. 
Cox :  — 


206  TOBACCO. 

"  From  about  fifteen  to  thirty,"  he  wrote,  "  I  am 
ashamed  to  say  I  smoked  ;  my  conscience  often 
upbraiding  me,  as  well  as  my  best  earthly  friend. 
Still  I  made  excuses,  and  my  physician,  a  smoker, 
helped  me  to  some.  So  I  continued,  till  once,  on 
board  a  steamer,  a  drunken  gentleman  staggered 
up  to  me,  exclaiming,  f  Give  me  a-a  1-ight,  Dr. 
Cox.'  I  handed  him  my  cigar.  He  returned  it. 
I  threw  it  overboard  ;  and  since  have  never  ceased 
to  thank  God  that  I  have  been  enabled  to  keep  my- 
self from  so  foul  and  odious  a  sin." 

In  replying  to  a  letter  from  Dr.  Cox,  John 
Quincy  Adams  writes  :  "  In  nry  early  youth  I  was 
addicted  to  tobacco,  in  two  of  its  mysteries,  — 
smoking  and  chewing.  I  was  warned  by  a  medi- 
cal friend  of  the  pernicious  operation  of  this  habit 
upon  the  stomach  and  the  nerves  ;  and  the  advice 
of  the  physician  was  fortified  by  my  own  experi- 
ence. More  than  thirty  years  have  passed  away 
since  I  deliberately  renounced  the  use  of  tobacco  in 
all  its  forms  ;  and  although  the  resolution  was  not 
carried  into  execution  without  a  struggle  of  vitiated 
nature,  I  never  yielded  to  its  impulses. 

"I  have  often  wished  that  every  individual  of 
the  human  race  afflicted  with  this  artificial  passion, 
could  prevail  on  himself  to  try  the  experiment 
which  I  made  ;  sure  that  it  would  turn  every  acre 
of  tobacco  land  into  a  wheat  field,  and  add  five 
years  to  the  average  of  human  life." 

Prof.  Dascomb,  of  Oberlin,  learned  to  smoke 
wThen  a  boy.      His  physician,  though   himself  a 


MORAL    AND    SPIRITUAL    VIEW.  207 

smoker,  said  to  him,  "You  will  live  only  a  few 
years  if  you  continue  this  habit.  /  cannot  break 
it  off,  but  you  are  young  and  may  be  able  to  do 
so."  The  boy  undertook  it,  and  succeeded ; 
although  to  the  end  of  his  life  he  suffered  from  the 
effects  of  his  early  indulgence. 

A  well-known  doctor  relates  that,  after  smoking 
for  twenty  years,  he  took  a  vow  of  abstinence  for 
one  month.  "  Never,"  he  says,  "  did  boy  long 
more  eagerly  for  election  day  than  I  longed  for  the 
end  of  the  month."  Such  was  the  good  doctor's 
passion  for  the  drug,  that  if  cigars  failed,  he  would 
resort  to  snuff.  Thus  he  went  on  till  the  indul- 
gence had  so  injured  the  nerves  and  softened  the 
coats  of  the  stomach  that  he  could  retain  no  food. 
Then  he  gathered  his  forces  for  the  conflict,  and 
broke  forever  from  his  bondage. 

A  slave  to  the  weed  in  Macomb,  Illinois,  finding 
his  family  at  one  time  out  of  flour  and  meat,  and 
himself  out  of  tobacco,  but  who  was  possessor  of 
only  a  dollar  and  seventy-five  cents,  went  to 
market.  He  returned  with  fifty  cents'  worth  of 
meat  and  a  dollar  and  twenty-five  cents'  worth 
of  tobacco,  telling  his  wife  that  they  must  trust  the 
Lord  for  flour.  At  the  age  of  seventy-six  he 
became  a  Christian,  when,  without  hesitation,  he 
instantly  renounced  his  idol. 

A  theological  student,  in  breaking  off  smoking, 
gives  three  reasons  for  so  doing :  — 

*  1.  No  gentleman  would  like  to  smoke  in  the 
presence  of  ladies. 


208  TOBACCO. 

w  2.  There  is  possible  harm,  and  no  possible 
benefit. 

ff3.  As  there  is  no  possible  benefit,  it  is  an  un- 
lawful  expenditure  of  time  and  money." 

A  professor  in  one  of  our  colleges  who  had 
smoked  for  many  years,  and  had  then  been  led  to 
abandon  the  habit,  also  gives  his  three  reasons  :  — 

w  1.  I  didn't  like  to  indulge  in  a  habit  that  I 
was  compelled  to  apologize  for. 

"2.1  knew  that,  however  little  I  might  smoke, 
I  should  be  quoted  as  a  smoker. 

"3.  My  boys!" 

In  The  Congregationalvit  was  found  the  follow- 
ing incident :  n  Two  clergymen,  than  whom  few 
are  better  known  all  through  the  State,  happened  to 
meet  in  our  office.  Both  have  been  inveterate 
smokers  ;  but  both  stopped  short  more  than  a  year 
ago,  and  have  not  blown  a  whiff  since.  They 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  only  way  to  stop 
was  to  stop.  And  neither  of  them  is  likely  to 
repent  of  his  repenting.  Who  will  go  and  do  like- 
wise?" 

A  member  of  the  Massachusetts  legislature,  who 
was  a  smoker,  was  led,  by  someone's  inquiries  as  to 
statute  laws  on  the  subject,  to  reflect  on  his  habit. 
and  to  see  that  he  had  come  into  a  bondage  which 
was  holding  him  closer  and  closer.  Although  he 
had  not  been  conscious  of  injury  from  the  habit,  he 
instantly  broke  from  it. 

A  distinguished  pastor  in  one  of  our  city  churches 
was  induced  to  abandon  smoking  by  the  innocent 


MORAL    AND   SPIRITUAL   VIEW.  209 

remark  of  a  young  convert  whom  he  was  examin- 
ing, that  he  "  had  given  up  all  bad  habits,  including 
smoking."  The  shepherd  felt  that  he  must  not 
fall  behind  the  sheep. 

The  venerable  Rev.  Job  Washburn,  widely 
known  in  Maine,  had  formed  in  boyhood  the  habit  of 
chewing.  He  made  several  efforts  to  give  it  up, 
but  without  success.  In  his  later  years,  when  he 
would  again  have  attempted  it,  his  friends  dis- 
couraged him,  fearing  the  effect  of  such  a  change  at 
his  years.  He  could  not  rest,  however  ;  and  at  the 
advanced  age  of  ninety-two,  he  went  to  God  in 
earnest  prayer,  and  soon,  to  the  surprise  of  all,  was 
able  to  announce  his  victory  over  his  lifelong 
habit. 

Mr.  Washburn's  daughter,  to  whom  I  am  indebt- 
ed for  these  particulars,  writes  that  after  this  con- 
quest his  health  improved,  and  he  seemed  to  her  a 
fairer  and  better  man.  About  two  years  later,  a 
few  days  before  his  death,  he  expressed  his  joy 
and  gratitude  that  he  had  been  enabled  to  free  him- 
self from  his  galling  yoke. 

Another  striking  case  is  that  of  Mr.  Joseph  Har- 
per, father  of  the  publisher.  He  was  an  excellent 
man,  but  a  great  chewer ;  and  nobody  dreamed  he 
could  be  induced  to  give  up  the  habit.  Mr.  Har- 
per had  a  neighbor  who  was  a  notorious  drunkard. 
A  friend  was  one  day  laboring  with  the  man  and 
entreating  him  to  quit  drinking.  w  Why,  I  could 
no  more  stop  drinking,"  he  replied,  "than  old  Joe 
Harper  could  give  up  tobacco."     When  this  remark 


210  TOBACCO. 

was  repeated  to  Mr.  Harper,  he  exclaimed, — 
"  Does  that  old  drunkard  say  so  ?  He  shall  not 
get  behind  me  with  his  rum.  I  will  show  him  that 
old  Joe  Harper  can  give  up  tobacco."  And  from 
that  moment  he  never  touched  it. 

I  knew  a  man  in  Marblehead,  Massachusetts, 
who  was  a  great  smoker  from  his  youth  till  he  was 
about  fifty,  when  his  health  was  so  undermined 
that  he  saw  he  "  must  quit  tobacco  or  die."  He 
did  quit  it  and  from  an  abject  slave  became  at  once 
a  freeman.  At  the  age  of  ninety  he  declared  him- 
self stronger  in  body  and  mind,  and  better  fitted 
for  work  than  at  fifty. 

Dr.  Titus  Coan,  of  the  Sandwich  Islands,  to 
whom  reference  has  already  been  made,  relates 
that  when  a  boy,  suffering  from  toothache,  his 
father  crowded  a  piece  of  tobacco  no  larger  than 
the  head  of  a  pin  into  the  defective  tooth,  which 
soon  put  him  to  sleep.  "But  in  a  little  while  I 
awoke,  and  felt  my  bedstead  whirling  round  and 
round  like  a  top.  I  thought  the  whole  house  was 
revolving  and  that  my  end  was  near.  Retching 
and  in  distress,  I  cried  for  help  ;  and  my  parents  came 
to  comfort  me  and  to  assure  me  that  this  state 
would  soon  pass  off." 

It  did  pass,  but  for  many  years  the  boy  could  n't 
bear  the  smell  of  the  poison.  At  last,  however, 
resolving  to  be  manly  and  brave  like  other  young 
men,  "I  began  moderately,  so  that  in  time  all 
went  well,  and  I  felt  that  I  had  mastered  the 
situation,  little  dreaming   that  the    seduction  was 


MORAL   AND   SPIRITUAL   VIEW.  211 

about  to  master  me.  At  this  time  I  did  not  look 
upon  the  use  of  tobacco  from  a  moral  standpoint. 
At  length  I  went  into  a  store  with  an  elder  brother. 
Here  I  found  the  choicest  of  tobaccos,  and  assisted 
in  selling,  still  feeling  that  the  business  was  le^iti- 
mate.  My  brother  smoked  freely,  but  suddenly, 
fearing  injury  to  health,  and  restive  under  the  sense 
of  slavery  to  that  habit,  he  resolved  to  abandon  the 
use  of  the  narcotic  poison.  For  about  a  month  he 
struggled  with  the  entrenched  foe,  under  such  a 
pressure  of  languor  and  depression  as  to  unfit  him 
for  business.  The  fight  was  for  life.  He  con- 
sulted physicians,  he  used  substitutes,  but  all  in 
vain.  He  had  harbored  an  enemy  which  had 
poisoned  his  blood,  coursed  over  his  nerves, 
disturbed  the  action  of  the  heart,  and  chained  him 
like  a  galley  slave  to  an  unworthy  and  unmanly 
habit. 

"In  despair  of  victory  he  returned  to  the  pipe, 
and  died  in  middle  life.  Without  a  word  with  any 
one,  I  then  resolved  to  conquer  the  foe.  On  the 
second  day  the  call  for  indulgence  was  strong,  but 
resolution  held  the  fort.  Day  after  day  pleaded 
for  indulgence,  but  will  prevailed  over  appetite 
and  habit.  As  the  mornings  succeeded  one  an- 
other, my  motto  was  What  the  Lord  helped  me  to 
do  yesterday,  I  can  do  to-day  with  His  help. 

"  The  battle  lasted  two  weeks,  when  appetite 
surrendered  at  discretion.  Since  that  happy  day, 
I  have  had  no  more  taste  or  desire  for  that  deceit- 
ful poison  than  for  an  adder ;  and  I  give  the  fore- 


212  TOBACCO. 

going  testimony  as  a  kind  legacy  to  encourage  all 
who  feel  the  fangs  and  the  tightening  toils  of  that 
enchanting  serpent,  tobacco !  No  earthly  gift 
could  bribe  me  to  return  to  the  use  of  the  weed ; 
and  I  am  sure  that  unyielding  resolution,  and 
a  patient  looking  for  divine  help,  will  enable  all 
who  honestly  desire  to  break  the  slavish  chains  of 
that  unnatural  and  degrading  appetite,  to  become 
free  from  its  toils." 

A  good  deacon  gives  me  his  experience  :  "  I  com- 
menced the  use  of  tobacco  when  under  ten,  became 
a  habitual  consumer  at  about  fifteen,  and  when 
thirty  began  to  realize  that  it  was  injuring  me. 
Then  came  the  struirsfle.     I  would  leave  it  off  for 

CO 

a  week,  for  a  month,  and  then  for  a  year.  The 
moment  my  pledge  was  up  I  would  commence 
with  renewed  energy.  This  continued  till  I  was 
about  forty,  when  I  became  satisfied  that  I  must 
either  die  or  break  from  my  bondage.  I  attempted 
the  latter.  For  more  than  two  years  I  wrestled 
with  the  appetite,  at  the  end  of  which  time  my 
craving  was,  if  possible,  stronger  than  ever.  I 
felt  that  I  must  have  relief  from  this  craving,  or 
succumb  to  it.  In  my  despair,  I  took  the  matter 
to  the  Lord  with  strong  crying.  He  soon  deliv- 
ered me  from  the  dreadful  appetite,  and  it  has  never 
returned,  praised  be  the  name  of  the  Lord." 

Dr.  Talmage  tells  us  that  he  was  once  an  ex- 
cessive smoker,  and  that  in  writing  his  sermons  he 
was  accustomed  to  take  a  fresh  cigar  with  every 
new  head.     On  one  occasion,  after  an  experience  of 


MORAL   AND    SPIRITUAL   VIEW.  213 

this  kind,  he  found  himself  in  the  highest  state  of 
nervous  excitement.  The  falling  of  a  book  startled 
him  like  the  firing  of  a  pistol,  and  the  creaking  of 
his  own  boots  made  his  hair  stand  on  end. 
Alarmed  by  these  symptoms,  he  instantly  broke 
from  the  habit,  and  found  himself  born  into  a  new 
physical,  mental,  and  spiritual  life. 

Thurlow  Weed,  according  to  his  own  account, 
smoked  cigars  during  fifty-four  years,  giving  away 
in  that  time  eighty  thousand.  Being  in  Saratoga 
for  his  health,  Dr.  Freeman,  an  old  friend,  called 
on  him.  When  some  reference  was  made  to 
the  cause  of  his  being  there,  the  doctor,  pointing 
to  the  cigar  still  burning  in  Mr.  Weed's  hand, 
remarked, — "I  see  the  time  has  come  when  that 
luxury  must  be  foregone."  "Do  you  mean  it?" 
"  I  do."  "Then  that  is  the  end."  And  with  true 
Spartan  heroism  he  threw  away  his  cigar  and  never 
touched  tobacoo  again. 

CHEERING    TOKENS. 

It  is  a  cheering  fact  that  many  German,  French, 
English,  and  American  physicians  of  the  highest 
standing  are  waging  war  upon  this  drug.  A  meet- 
ing of  Sunday-school  and  week-day  teachers  in 
England  has  been  held  for  the  purpose  of  consider- 
ing measures  to  check  its  use.  It  was  presided 
over  by  an  eminent  ph}'sician  of  a  royal  e}Te-inh*r- 
mary,  who  affirmed  that  paralysis  of  the  optic 
nerve  and  other  diseases  of  the  eyes  were  directly 
caused  by  tobacco. 


214  TOBACCO, 

It  is  encouraging,  in  the  almost  overwhelming 
current  of  public  sentiment  that  sets  the  wrong 
way,  to  note  any  straws  floating  in  the  right  direc- 
tion ;  among  such,  we  reckon  the  following:  — 

A  minister  of  talent  and  piety,  a  good  preacher, 
and  of  acceptable  manners,  who  had  supplied  three 
different  churches,  received  no  call  from  any  of 
them,  and,  as  was  plainly  stated,  simply  because 
he  was  known  to  be  an  immoderate  user  of  tobacco  ! 

Two  Xew  England  churches  recently  refused  to 
call  two  Andover  theological  students  because  they 
used  the  unclerical  weed. 

If  all  the  churches  were  of  the  same  mind,  we 
should  soon  witness  a  wonderful  advance  in  this 
much-needed,  ardentlv-prayed-for  reform. 

At  a  monthly  collection  in  a  church,  a  ten-dollar 
bill  was  put  in  the  box,  with  a  paper  affixed,  on 
which  was  written  :  tr  To  be  given  to  a  missionary 
who  does  not  use  tobacco." 

Writes  "  a  mother  "  :  M I  would  as  soon  help  a 
saloon-keeper  furnish  his  bar  as  to  help  tobacco- 
using  students  ;  or  contribute  toward  a  f  Brewers' 
Union'  as  to  a  society  which  aids  such  young  men 
in  getting  into  the  ministry." 

An  itinerary  preacher,  being  refused  entertain- 
ment by  an  old  woman,  where  he  asked  for  it, 
quoted  to  her  the  passage,  "Be  not  forgetful  to 
entertain  strangers,  for  thereby  some  have  enter- 
tained angels  unawares ; "  when  she  promptly 
made  answer  :  "  You  need  n't  say  that.  Xo  angel 
would  come  down  here  with  a  big  quid  of  tobacco 
in  his  mouth." 


MORAL   AND   SPIRITUAL   VIEW.  215 

The  Iowa  Central  Railroad  has  published  an 
order  forbidding  its  employees  to  drink  any  in- 
toxicants and  also  to  smoke  while  they  are  on 
duty. 

San  Diego,  California,  has  passed  an  ordinance 
prohibiting  cigarettes  to  boys. 

At  a  Universalist  convention  the  following  reso- 
lution was  offered :  — 

"  Resolved,  That  this  convention  memorialize  the 
General  Convention,  at  its  next  session,  asking  it  to 
refuse  beneficiary  aid  to  all  students  in  our  theolo- 
gical schools  who  make  use  of  tobacco ;  believing 
such  practice  to  be  incompatible  with  the  highest 
Christian  service." 

This  resolution  was  adopted  by  an  almost  unan- 
imous vote. 

In  "  The  Doctrines  and  Discipline  of  the  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  Church  "  is  found  the  following  :  — 

"Resolved,  1.  That  we  advise  all  our  ministers 
and  members  to  abstain  from  the  use  of  tobacco, 
as  injurious  to  both  soul  and  body. 

"  Resolved,  2.  That  we  recommend  to  the  Annual 
Conferences  to  require  candidates  for  admission  to 
be  free  from  the  habit,  as  hurtful  to  their  accepta- 
bility and  usefulness  among  our  people." 

To  cut  off  any  possible  loophole,  the  General 
Conference  of  this  church  advises  that  no  man  who 
uses  tobacco  be  received  into  an  Annual  Confer- 
ence. For  years,  the  Central  Illinois  Conference 
has  refused  to  admit  any  votary  of  the  weed. 

Says  Bishop  Simpson  :  "  In  some  places  congre- 


216  TOBACCO. 

gations  are  unwilling  to  receive  ministers  who  in- 
dulge in  tobacco.  Many  families  almost  dread  the 
visits  of  such  ministers,  lest  their  growing  sons 
may  be  led  to  adopt  a  practice  which  they  so  ear- 
nestly discountenance  and  oppose." 

A  presiding  elder  in  the  Methodist  Church,  in 
answer  to  inquiries  on  this  subject,  writes  :  "  Our 
Conferences  have  been  srrowinof  more  exact  from 
year  to  year.  In  the  New  England  Conference, 
we  never  receive  any  man  as  a  preacher  without 
questioning  him  on  this  point." 

Rev.  Mr.  Evans,  presiding  elder  in  the  Central 
Illinois  Conference,  writes  :  "  I  am  glad  to  say  that 
for  about  twenty  years,  the  Conference,  at  nearly 
every  session,  has  adopted  radical  anti-tobacco  reso- 
lutions :  while  the  use  of  the  weed  has  been  uni- 
formly denounced  as  expensive,  filthy,  injurious, 
and  unchristian.  The  Conference  refuses  to  admit 
any  one  addicted  to  the  tobacco-habit,  unless  a 
pledge  of  abstinence  be  given  :  and  it  has  also  re- 
quested the  Bishop  not  to  transfer  to  the  Confer- 
ence, nor  appoint  to  the  office  of  presiding  elder, 
any  tobacco-user.  The  discussions  of  every  year 
have  served  to  make  it  more  unaminous  and  radi- 
cal in  its  action." 

With  the  Free  Methodists  no  one  is  allowed  to 
become  a  church-member  who  uses  tobacco  in  any 
form, — a  rule  strictly  enforced  upon  the  ministers. 

Of  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church,  the  "Cana- 
dian Discipline  "  declares  :  rf  Xo  preacher  on  proba- 
tion shall  be  received  into  full  connection  unless  it 


MORAL   AND   SPIRITUAL  VIEW.  217 

be  stated  on  his  Station's  Report  that  he  has  not 
used  tobacco  during  the  previous  year."  A  simi- 
lar rule  obtains  in  the  English  body. 

John  Wesley  refused  to  admit  to  the  ministry 
any  man  addicted  to  the  use  of  the  noxious  weed. 
Both  English  and  American  Wesleyans  follow  his 
practice  in  this  respect,  and  Bishop  Janes  cheers 
us  by  his  avowed  belief  that  the  time  will  come 
when  congregations  will  not  accept  a  pastor  who 
uses  it.  The  New  York  State  Congregational 
Association  a  few  years  since  adopted,  without 
dissent,  the  following  resolutions  :  — 

w  1.  That  the  tobacco-habit  is  an  enormous  evil ; 
and,  on  account  of  its  waste  of  money,  positive  in- 
juries to  health,  and  pernicious  example  to  the 
young,  Christians  ought  to  abandon  it. 

"  2.  That  this  Association  earnestly  recom- 
mend to  all  our  churches  thorough  measures 
for  instructing  the  people  as  to  the  manifold  mis- 
chiefs flowing  from  the  use  of  narcotic  drugs,  as 
well  as  drinks ;  and  that  special  efforts  be  made 
to  guard  children  and  youth  from  any  and  every 
use  of  tobacco." 

At  the  Synod  of  the  Reformed  Presbyterian 
church  in  Pittsburg,  Penn.,  a  report  was  adopted, 
declaring  that  "  members  using  tobacco  ought  to 
strive  earnestly  to  give  up  the  habit,  as  offensive  to 
good  manners  and  cleanliness,  and  inconsistent 
with  self-denial." 

If  one  may  be  allowed  to  comment  on  a  dec- 
laration  emanating  from   so  respectable  a  body, 


218  TOBACCO. 

the  susrsrestion  is  ventured  that  the  omission  of 
the  clause  w  to  strive  earnestly  "  would  render  the 
report  more  terse  and  effective.  We  must  re- 
member, however,  that  the  various  Presbyterian 
bodies  are  more  conservative  than  some  other  de- 
nominations, —  a  fact  borne  out  in  the  Cumberland 
General  Assembly  at  Austin,  Texas,  where  a 
resolution  condemning  all  ministerial  use  of  tobacco 
was  fully  discussed,  but  unfortunately  was  finally 
laid  on  the  table. 

At  a  Baptist  General  Convention,  in  a  Western 
city,  the  subject  of  tobacco  was  ably  presented, 
and  a  resolution  passed  deprecating  its  use. 

Professor  Hovey,  of  the  Xewton  Theological 
Seminary,  writes:  "For  many  years  past  there 
have  been  very  few  of  our  students  who  have  used 
tobacco.  The  Northern  Baptist  Educational  Soci- 
ety has  adopted  a  rule  which  prevents  it  from  fur- 
nishing pecuniary  assistance  to  any  student  who 
uses  the  weed ;  and,  so  far  as  I  am  informed, 
there  is  no  fault  found  with  the  Society  for  taking 
this  stand." 

Great  reason  as  we  have  for  deploring  the  gen- 
eral low  public  sentiment  on  this  subject,  we 
would  not  ignore  the  fact  that,  in  certain  respects, 
there  is  a  manifest  improvement.  A  well-known 
gentleman,  son  of  one  of  our  excellent  Xew  Eng- 
land pastors,  writes  of  the  custom  that  prevailed 
in  his  boyhood  :  "  When  the  Berkshire  Association 
of  thirty  ministers  was  to  meet  at  my  father's,  I 
was  sent  to  the  store  for  two  quarts  of  Jamaica, 


MORAL   AND   SPIRITUAL   VIEW.  219 

four  quarts  of  Santa  Cruz  rum,  two  dozen  pipes, 
and  two  large  papers  of  tobacco  !  " 

In  view  of  such  usages,  the  ecclesiastical  good 
tokens  that  have  been  named  are  truly  encour- 
aging. A  few  in  the  secular  line  are  no  less 
cheering. 

The  enterprising  firm  of  Jordan,  Marsh,  &  Co., 
of  the  New  England  metropolis,  occasionally  fur- 
nish brief,  practical  lectures  to  their  employees 
in  the  large  hall  connected  with  their  establishment. 
In  one  of  these  lectures  the  tobacco-subject  was 
discussed ;  and,  as  a  result,  every  one  of  the 
clerks,  with  a  single  exception,  voted  to  abandon  it. 

After  the  women  of  Massachusetts  had  been 
admitted  to  vote  on  the  education  question,  the 
Commonwealth,  in  1881,  passed  an  act  to  aid  in 
preserving  order  at  elections,  of  which  the  follow- 
ing is  the  substance  :  — 

"  During  any  town-meeting,  held  for  the  election 
of  national,  state,  county,  or  town  officers,  no 
person  shall  smoke,  or  have  in  his  possession  any 
lighted  pipe,  cigarette,  or  cigar,  in  any  town-hall 
where  such  meeting  is  being  held.  Any  persons 
violating  any  of  the  provisions  of  this  act  shall  be 
deemed  guilty  of  disorderly  conduct,  and  the 
moderator  shall  order  the  person  to  remove  any 
such  pipe,  cigarette,  or  cigar,  or  withdraw  himself 
from  said  place  of  meeting ;  and,  on  his  declining 
to  obey,  shall  order  any  police  officer,  or  other 
person,  to  take  him  from  the  meeting,  and  confine 
him  in  some  convenient  place  until  the  meeting 


220  TOBACCO. 

adjourns.     The  person  so  refusing  shall  forfeit  a 
sum  not  exceeding  twenty  dollars." 

In  the  Jewish  Messenger  is  an  account  of  a  club 
of  young  ladies  who  are  pledged  to  kiss  no  man 
whose  lips  are  tainted  with  tobacco.  May  its 
membership  rapidly  increase  ! 

A  Western  gazette  tells  us  of  the  suspense  for 
ten  days  of  an  engineer  on  the  C.  B.  &  Q.  Rail- 
road by  the  superintendent,  because,  when  on  his 
engine,  ready  to  pull  out  the  passenger-train,  he 
held  in  his  mouth  part  of  an  unlighted  cigar. 
Thanks  to  the  superintendent,  and  a  speedy  re- 
form to  all  engineers  ! 

The  city  corporation,  Manchester,  England, 
fines  a  cabman  if  he  smokes  while  conveying  a 
passenger. 

A  Philadelphia  smoker,  on  entering  a  horse-car, 
insisted  on  retaining  his  cigar  in  his  hand.  Its 
smoke  being  offensive  to  the  ladies,  the  conductor 
warned  him  to  throw  it  away,  and,  as  he  refused, 
put  him  out  by  force.  The  smoker  sued  the  com- 
pany for  damages ;  but  the  verdict  was  against 
him,  the  court  charging  the  jury  that  he  was  w  a 
nuisance  which  the  conductor  had  a  right  to  abate." 
Later,  a  smoker  in  New  York  city  was  fined  fifty 
dollars,  because  in  a  street-car  he  insisted  on  re- 
taining his  cigar. 

A  Xew  York  editor  remarks  with  regard  to  the 
Treasury  at  Washington:  "It  is  no  secret  that 
that  fine  building  has  been  for  several  years  past, 
as  to  many  of  its  departments,  a  cross  between  a 


MORAL    AND    SPIRITUAL   VIEW.  221 

bar-room  and  a  smoking-car."  It  is  cheering  to 
know  that  Secretary  Folger  issued  an  order  for- 
bidding smoking  in  the  halls  or  rooms  of  the 
Treasury.  This  is  understood  to  be,  in  part,  an 
act  of  consideration  toward  the  lady  clerks,  who, 
he  saw,  were  greatly  annoyed  by  the  universal 
cigar. 

Concerning  this  example,  so  worthy  of  imitation, 
the  New  York  Evening  Post  remarks  :  w  The  order 
is  not  acceptable  to  the  male  clerks,  the  great  ma- 
jority of  whom  are  accustomed  to  smoke  at  all 
times  during  business  hours.  The  abuse  of  smok- 
ing has  been  very  great.  Since  Secretary  Bris- 
tow's  time,  the  secretaries  themselves,  not  only 
have  not  forbidden  smoking,  but  have  smoked  at 
their  desks.  Even  in  the  file-rooms,  where  valu- 
able papers  are  stored  in  lofts  of  pine-wood  par- 
titions, the  custodians  have  often  been  seen  with 
cigars.  Secretary  Folger's  order  forbidding  this  is 
strictly  a  revival  of  the  order  which  has  been  in 
disuse  since  Secretary  Bristow's  time." 

In  view  of  the  alarming  increase  of  the  use  of 
tobacco  among  children,  the  Boston  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union  sent  a  circular  with 
several  tracts  on  the  subject  to  all  the  teachers 
and  officers  of  the  public  schools  of  Boston  and 
the  suburbs. 

In  November,  1882,  a  statement  appeared  in 
the  Boston  Journal  to  the  effect  that  seventy-five 
per  cent  of  school-boys  over  twelve  or  thirteen 
smoke  cigarettes.    A  Cambridgeport  teacher  places 


222  TOBACCO. 

the  age  between  eight  and  fifteen,  and  gives  the 
results  of  his  efforts  against  the  evil.  Out  of  three 
hundred  and  fifty  boys,  he  induced  all  but  thirty 
to  sign  a  total-abstinence  pledge  for  the  year ;  and 
of  these,  fifty  per  cent  kept  their  pledge. 

In  the  Latin  School,  one  half  of  the  upper  classes 
are  smokers,  many  of  them  with  the  concurrence 
of  their  parents.  While  a  number  of  teachers  do 
all  they  can  to  banish  tobacco  from  the  schools, 
the  ignorance  and  indifference  on  the  part  of 
parents,  with  the  smoking  example  of  some  of 
them  and  also  of  a  portion  of  the  teachers,  are 
almost  insuperable  hindrances  to  a  thorough  re- 
form. 

In  Barnard's  Journal  of  Education,  ten  cities 
are  named,  among  which  are  Chicago,  New  Orleans, 
San  Francisco,  and  Washington,  in  which  the  use 
of  tobacco  during  school-hours  or  in  school-rooms 
is  forbidden  to  both  teachers  and  pupils. 

In  Germany,  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction 
has  addressed  a  circular  to  the  directors  of  all  the 
Gymnasia  (higher  classical  schools),  in  which  he 
condemns  in  the  strongest  terms  the  practice  of 
smoking ;  and  students  of  these  institutions  have 
been  officially  forbidden  smoking  in  the  streets. 
And  this  in  the  very  land  of  smokers  ! 

The  principal  of  Phillips  Academy,  at  Exeter, 
N.  H.,  issued  a  circular  to  the  parents  of  his  stu- 
dents, desiring  their  view  as  to  the  prohibition 
of  the  weed,  and  received  answers  in  favor  of 
this  from  quite  a  number  of  them. 


MORAL   AND   SPIRITUAL   VIEW.  223 

The  trustees  of  Williston  Seminary,  Easthamp- 
ton,  Mass.,  have  passed  the  following  vote  :  "  No 
member  of  the  school  shall  be  allowed  to  use 
tobacco,  unless  he  bring  a  statement  in  writing 
from  his  parent  or  guardian  that  he  does  it  with 
his  approval."  In  a  letter,  speaking  of  this  cir- 
cular, Principal  Fairbanks  says  :  "  Many  young 
men  connected  with  this  institution  have  been 
injured  physically,  mentally,  and  morally  by  the 
use  of  tobacco.  At  present,  very  few  use  it,  and 
only  those  who  have  the  written  consent  of  parents 
or  guardians.  We  shall  enforce  the  prohibition 
more  strictly  from  year  to  year." 

Principal  Bancroft,  of  Phillips  Academy,  An- 
dover,  Mass.,  writes  that  in  reply  to  a  similar 
circular  sent  to  parents,  guardians,  school-officers, 
and  physicians,  he  received  "  a  hundred  and  forty- 
seven  replies,  not  one  of  them  approving  the  use 
of  tobacco  by  boys."  He  goes  on  to  say:  "To- 
bacco is  the  bane  of  our  schools  and  colleges,  and 
increasingly  so.  Teachers  who  have  given  any 
attention  to  the  subject  agree  that  boys  go  down 
under  its  use  in  scholarship,  in  self-respect,  in 
self-control.  It  takes  oft'  the  fine  edge  of  the 
mind,  injures  the  manners,  and  dulls  the  moral 
senses.  School  disorders  are  always  rank  with 
the  fumes  of  tobacco.  We  can  select  the  boys 
who  smoke  heavily  by  a  certain  hesitation  in  an- 
swering questions,  by  a  peculiar  huskiness  of 
voice,  by  a  dulness  of  complexion,  by  a  tremor  of 
the  hand. 


224  TOBACCO. 

w  Boys  learn  to  smoke  because  it  is  a  habit  of 
our  times  ;  because  it  is  sanctioned  by  the  practice 
of  many  eminent  men  in  all  the  walks  of  life,  — 
some  of  them  intellectual  leaders  of  the  age ; 
because  literature,  art,  and  song  have  been  satu- 
rated with  the  fragrance  of  the  choicest  tobacco, 
till  it  affects  the  taste,  as  well  as  appetite.  Gen. 
Grant's  smoking  is  the  boy's  answer  to  many  an 
appeal  in  this  country,  as  the  Prince  of  Wales's 
smoking  is  in  England.  I  have  had  under  mv 
charge  a  boy  who  could  reply  to  my  argument  on 
the  ground  of  health,  'My  physician  smokes ; '  on 
the  ground  of  morals,  f  My  minister  smokes  : '  on 
the  ground  of  hi^h-breedinsf,  'My  father  smokes.' 

"  Parents  are  surprisingly  ignorant  of  the  habits 
of  their  boys  in  this  regard,  surprisingly  helpless 
when  they  find  their  sons  using  tobacco,  or  sur- 
prisingly timid,  and  criminally  indifferent. 

"  The  tobacco-reform  must  begin  in  the  enliofht- 
ened  conscience.  A  habit  which  destroys  or 
enfeebles  the  physical  powers,  which  affects  the 
whole  nervous  system,  and  thus  reaches  the  will 
and  the  moral  character,  is  a  sin, 

"  It  is  specially  important  that  parents,  preachers, 
and  all  others  whom  boys  propose  to  themselves 
as  models  of  deportment,  honor,  and  usefulness, 
should  themselves  be  exemplary.  I  would  not 
have  a  teacher  here  who  used  tobacco,  or  sympa- 
thized with  those  who  do." 

Prof.  William  Stephens,  of  Philadelphia,  has 
caused  to  be  pasted  on  the  inside  of  every  text- 


MORAL   AND   SPIRITUAL   VIEW.  225 

book  used  in  his  school  a  brief  printed  statement 
of  the  physical  and  mental  diseases  produced  in 
the  young  by  tobacco.  That  it  is  high  time  for 
such  information  to  be  diffused,  we  learn,  from  his 
alarming  statement  that  of  the  fifty  thousand  pupils 
of  the  city  a  large  majority  use  tobacco,  the 
habit  having  rapidly  increased  since  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  cigarette. 

"  A  Williams  student  reports  that  the  greater 
part  of  his  class,  on  entering  college,  did  not 
smoke,  but  that,  on  graduating,  the  larger  majority 
had  become  smokers.  They  had  in  tutors  and  pro- 
fessors the  example  ;  why  not  follow  it?" 

In  Oberlin,  in  marked  contrast  with  this  tolera- 
tion, no  professor  or  teacher  is  employed  who  uses 
tobacco,  and  it  is  strictly  prohibited  in  the  college. 

If  a  student  uses  it  surreptitiously  he  is  expelled  ; 
if  he  frankly  states  to  the  Faculty  that  he  cannot 
give  it  up,  he  receives  what  is  called  an  honorable 
dismission,  accompanied  with  a  statement  of  the 
reason  for  this  dismission, — which,  being  inter- 
preted, is,  that  he  is  in  bondage  to  tobacco.  The 
sentiment  of  the  town  is  in  accordance  with  this 
course,  and  at  one  time,  when  the  tobacco-habit 
seemed  on  the  increase,  an  enthusiastic  meeting  was 
held  to  take  measures  against  it.  After  dwelling 
on  the  injurious  influences,  physical,  mental,  and 
moral,  a  resolution  was  adopted  that  pastors  be 
requested  to  preach  on  the  subject  from  time  to 
time,  and  that  a  committee  be  appointed  to  visit 
those  engaged  in  its  sale,  urging  them  to  desist, 


226  TOBACCO. 

and  to  devise  means  for  putting  an  end  to  the  use 
and  the  traffic. 

Anions  the  terms  of  admission  to  the  Training- 
School  for  Boys,  at  Oxford,  Ohio,  is  found  printed 
in  Italics  :  — 

"  jyb  pupil  wiU  be  received  into  the  boarding 
hall  who  uses  tobacco  in  any  form.1" 

This  condition  was  made  in  the  face  of  public 
sentiment,  and  with  the  probability  of  its  dimin- 
ishing the  numbers ;  but  it  is  winning  its  way,  as 
right,  in  the  long  run,  must  ever  do. 

In  the  advertising  columns  of  the  Washington 
Star  appears  the  following  :  "  The  prayers  of  God's 
people  are  most  earnestly  requested  for  the 
thorough  purification  of  a  young  church,  whose 
pastor  and  officers  are  inveterate  tobacco-users, 
much  against  the  wishes  of  its  members/' 

In  Xew  York  and  Brooklyn  the  evil  is  felt  to  be 
so  great  that  petitions  have  been  circulated,  asking 
for  a  statute  law  prohibiting  the  sale  of  tobacco  to 
minors. 

As  we  have  already  seen,  tobacco  is  forbidden 
in  the  Naval  School  at  Annapolis.  There  is  the 
same  prohibition  at  Girard  College,  while  at  Cor- 
nell many  of  the  students  have  voluntarily  signed 
a  pledge  of  abstinence.  At  West  Point,  the  pro- 
hibition which  had  been  recommended  by  the 
trustees  is  carried  into  effect  by  the  order  of 
Lincoln,  Secretary  of  War. 

At  one  of  the  annual  meetings  of  an  English 
anti-tobacco  society  the  chairman  stated  that  they 


MORAL   AND   SPIRITUAL   VIEW.  227 

had  met,  in  the  name  of  science,  humanity,  and 
Christianity,  to  enter  their  most  solemn  protest 
against  the  growing  use  of  tobacco.     The  following 

COO  o 

resolution  was  moved  by  Dr.  Edmunds,  of  Lon- 
don :  — 

"That  this  meeting,  impressed  with  a  deep  con- 
viction of  the  physical,  mental,  and  moral  evils 
resulting  from  the  use  of  tobacco,  and  regarding 
with  a  profound  alarm  and  apprehension  the 
rapidly  extending  habit  of  smoking  amongst  the 
youth  of  our  country,  calls  upon  parents,  Sunday- 
School  teachers,  members  and  ministers  of  Chris- 
tian churches,  and  all  true  patriots  and  philanthro- 
pists to  discountenance  the  practice  to  the  utmost, 
both  by  precept  and  example." 

At  Exeter  Hall,  London,  a  National  Society  for 
the  Suppression  of  Juvenile  Smoking  has  been 
founded ;  Dr.  B.  W.  Richardson  being  elected 
honorary  president,  and  the  Hon.  Arthur  Kinnaird 
treasurer. 

HEATHEN    EXAMPLES. 

Now,  how  do  we  find  it  when  the  heathen  come 
under  the  power  of  the  Gospel  ?  Do  their  native 
preachers  and  teachers  and  deacons  continue  this 
indulgence?  So  far  from  this,  the  Christian  senti- 
ment is  strongly  against  tobacco. 

As  an  evidence  of  the  sincerity  of  Indian  con- 
verts in  Idaho,  it  is  said  that,  though  devoted  to 
the  pipe,  growing  up  with  it  in  their  mouths,  yet 
on  being  converted,  with  the  laying  aside  of  paint, 
they  also  lay  aside  their  pipe. 


228  TOBACCO. 

At  Ponape,  in  the  Caroline  Islands,  more  than 
half  the  church  members,  who  had  smoked  all 
their  lives,  had  given  it  up.  In  other  islands  of 
Micronesia,  where,  a  few  years  ago,  every  one 
used  tobacco,  at  the  present  time,  of  eight  hundred 
and  thirty  Christians  not  a  single  one  now  makes 
use  of  it. 

Dr.  Coan  states  that  on  his  arrival  at  the  Ha- 
waiian Islands  in  1835,  the  missionaries  were  de- 
bating the  tobacco  question.  Some  argued  for 
strong  decisive  measures,  and  others  for  a  moder- 
ate course,  while  a  small  number  advised  silence, 
saying,  — M  Preach  the  Gospel  and  convert  the 
people,  and  let  these  little  matters  alone."  But 
unfortunately  it  was  discovered  that  some  of  this 
class  were  secret  devotees  of  the  weed,  while  others 
did  not  scruple  to  take  puffs  from  the  pipes  of  the 
native  smokers. 

Dr.  Coan  continues  :  ff  During  one  of  my  visits 
as  delegate  to  the  Marquesas  Islands,  one  of  our 
Hawaiian  missionaries  there  told  me  that  a  former 
delegate  of  our  mission  had  made  them  trouble  in 
this  way.  He  chewed  tobacco  secretly,  but  a  keen- 
scented  Marquesan  smelled  his  breath,  and  on  a  cer- 
tain occasion,  when  the  delegate  walked  out,  this 
savage  followed  him,  and  watched  for  his  spitting. 
At  length  it  came,  and  fell  on  a  rock.  The  savage 
waited  a  little  for  the  delegate  to  pass  on,  then 
knelt  down  and  smelt  the  rock.  The  secret  was 
out,  and  it  spread  like  wildfire  among  the  natives. 
They  accused  our  Hawaiian  teacher  of  guile  and 


MORAL   AND    SPIRITUAL   VIEW.  229 

inconsistency  in  teaching  them  to  abandon  tobacco 
while  our  own  ministers  used  it.  And  the  mission- 
aries in  those  islands  begged  of  me  to  see  that  no 
more  tobacco-consumers  be  sent  them  as  dele- 
gates." 

This  honored  missionary,  now  gone  up  to  his 
reward,  relates  that  in  his  labors  among  the  people 
of  Hilo  and  Puna,  he  "was  careful,  in  illustrating 
the  commands  and  prohibitions  of  the  law  and 
Gospel,  to  be  specific,  and  so  to  illustrate  as  to 
make  their  untutored  minds  understand  what  was 
right  and  wrong  in  heart  and  act.  Our  people 
must  be  told  how  to  catch  the  little  foxes."  The 
result  on  the  tobacco  question  was  that  hundreds  of 
little  patches  of  the  weed  were  rooted  up  and  des- 
troyed ;  thousands  of  pipes  were  smashed  or 
burned.  And  it  is  probable  that  ten  thousand  na- 
tives of  this  parish  have  promised  to  let  the  poison 
alone.  Some  played  the  hypocrite,  of  course  ; 
others  forsook  it  for  a  season,  and,  like  many  of 
our  educated  clergymen  and  other  professed  Chris- 
tians, returned  to  it  when  appetite  overpowered 
resolution.  But  many  thousands  of  our  church 
members  held  out  to  the  last,  and  were  faithful  to 
their  vows  until  death.  Numbers  are  still  living, 
and  they  are  our  most  reliable  men  in  all  that  is 
good. 

"  But  the  great  increase  of  example  on  the  part 
of  smoking  and  chewing  clergymen  and  lay  pro- 
fessors from  other  countries  is  demoralizing  this 
generation  of  Hawaiians,  rendering  church  disci- 


230  TOBACCO. 

pline  difficult,  our  labors  hard,  and  the  simple 
practical  truths  of  the  gospel  of  little  effect  among 
the  lovers  of  pleasure." 

A  Baptist  missionary  in  India,  writing  of  the 
interest  in  the  mission  work  by  the  native  helpers, 
states  that  they  have  resolved  to  abandon  tobacco 
and  the  betel  nut,  which  has  a  similar  effect,  and 
to  give  the  money  thus  saved  to  the  good  cause. 
Why  not  send  some  of  these  converted,  sin-renoun- 
cing Indians  and  South  Sea  Islanders  as  mission- 
aries to  this  country,  that  they  may  exhort  alike  all 
tobacco-sinners  and  all  tobacco-Christians  to  cast 
their  detestable  idols  to  the  moles  and  the  bats,  and 
to  consecrate  the  gold  and  silver  thus  redeemed  to 
the  service  of  the  one  living  and  true  God  ? 

CLAIMS    OF   THE    TRADE. 

In  addition  to  the  clamorous  appetite  which  sets 
itself  squarely  against  reform,  is  another  formidable 
obstacle,  — the  greed  of  grain,  or,  as  some  put  it, 
and  it  may  be  honestly,  the  claims  of  a  family  de- 
pendent for  their  daily  bread  on  the  culture,  the 
manufacture,  or  the  sale  of  tobacco.  The  extent 
to  which  moneyed  interests  have  become  involved 
in  this  wretched  business  appears  in  the  vast 
amount  expended  for  the  drug  throughout  the 
world,  with  the  immense  revenue  it  brings  to  the 
various  governments.  The  arguments  thus  result- 
ing for  the  continuance  of  the  traffic  are  only  too 
familiar  to  those  who  have  fought  in  our  anti-slav- 
ery and  our  temperance  battles. 


MORAL   AND   SPIRITUAL   VIEW.  231 

Dr.  Johnson  was  once  remonstrating  with  a  man 
engaged  in  some  occupation  which  he  confessed  to 
be  wrong.  The  man  excused  himself  by  the  com- 
mon plea :  "  But  I  must  live,  sir,"  when  the 
sturdy  doctor  rejoined,  "I  don't  know  that  that 
is  necessary." 

K  Fear  to  endanger  your  craft,"  the  wholesale 
and  retail  distribution  of  poison  !  If  those  medi- 
cal and  scientific  men  who  assert  that  "  Indulgence 
in  narcotic  luxuries  is  the  great  highway  to  the 
grave"  have  uttered  the  truth,  then  let  all  such 
crafts  sink  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea  !  If  your  plea 
of  necessity  is  a  true  one,  then,  better  live  and  die 
in  poverty,  or  trust  to  God's  ravens,  than  to  thrive 
by  poisoning  your  fellow  men.  Besides  you  can- 
not wrong  your  neighbor  without  reaping,  sooner 
or  later,  a  bitter  harvest.  To  commit  a  doubtful 
act  injures  the  doer  as  really  as  the  receiver ;  to 
sanction  an  admitted  wrong  will  in*  some  way 
bring  you  incalculable  harm. 

Put  your  commercial  interests,  as  you  call  them, 
into  one  scale,  and  the  welfare  of  the  community 
into  the  other.  How  is  it  with  your  end  of  the  bal- 
ance ?  Do  not  reason  and  conscience  make  your 
path  plain  ?  What  if  you  should  resolve  that  not 
for  another  day  will  you  curse  the  ground  with 
the  growth  of  the  rank  poison  ;  that  you  will  never 
manufacture,  that  you  will  never  sell,  another  ounce 
of  it? 


232  TOBACCO. 


HELPFUL    SUGGESTIONS. 

A  miserable  tobacco-slave,  who  had  tried  again 
and  again  to  break  his  fetters,  but  in  vain,  ex- 
claimed in  his  despair,  "  Tobacco  is  killing  me  by 
inches,  and  yet  I  cannot  help  using  it."  And  it 
did  kill  him. 

For  such  persons,  with  energies  so  sapped  by 
the  narcotic  that  they  have  neither  grit  nor  grace 
for  the  breaking  of  their  yoke,  the  best  plan  would 
seem  to  be  a  retreat  where  this  insidious  foe  could 
be  effectually  excluded.  Said  a  Boston  man  :  "The 
tobacco-disease  is  the  great  disease  of  our  times, 
and  the  most  difficult  to  cure.  I  will  give  land 
worth  a  thousand  dollars  towards  an  institution  for 
the  cure  of  tobacco-victims." 

I  have  recently  heard  of  the  bondage  being  bro- 
ken by  animal  magnetism.  Dr.  Dodge,  the  well- 
known  magnetic  healer  at  Riverside  Institution, 
Hamilton,  111.  tells  me  that  he  has  produced  with 
some  inveterate  users  of  the  weed,  an  utter  loath- 
ing of  it,  and  that  this  loathing  is  not  a  mere 
transient  mood,  but  an  abiding  condition,  so  that 
the  result  is  total  abstinence,  unless  the  enfran- 
chised slave  chooses,  by  the  same  process  as  in  the 
beginning,  once  more  to  come  under  the  tyrant's 
yoke. 

For  one  who  has  no  magnetic  opportunities,  but 
is  willing  to  enter  on  a  warfare  against  this  appe- 
tite, there  is  a  right  physical  as  well  as  mental  and 
moral  treatment.    The  dreadful  poison  has  wrought 


MORAL   AND   SPIRITUAL   VIEW.  233 

itself  into  the  system,  and  induced  a  diseased  con- 
dition. And  to  meet  this  condition,  common-sense 
dictates  hygienic  treatment.  To  overcome  the 
tobacco-habit,  plain  and  easily  digested  food  is 
strongly  recommended,  with  abstinence  from  all 
spices  and  condiments  and  every  stimulating  article. 
In  addition  frequent  packs  or  baths  are  helpful. 
The  baths  may  be  Russian  or  Turkish,  or,  if  these 
cannot  be  secured,  an  old-fashioned  vapor-bath. 
But  in  all  this,  one  must  keep  the  will  at  the  helm; 
he  must  not  for  a  single  moment  let  go  the  resolve  to 
conquer,  or  the  effort  will  result  in  a  miserable 
failure. 

There  are  some  who  maintain  that  all  which  is 
needful  in  order  to  break  from  this  bondage  is  the 
determination  and  backbone  to  carry  it  out. 

In  reference  to  this,  Dr.  Ringland,  of  the  River- 
side Institute,  to  which  allusion  has  been  made, 
writes  :  "  While  it  is  true  that  will-power  —  "back- 
bone '  —  is  the  essential  quality  in  overcoming 
the  habit,  we  cannot  overlook  the  fact  that  the 
giving  up  tobacco  causes  a  disturbance  of  the  vital 
forces  which  may  properly  be  treated  with  reme- 
dial measures. 

"The  use  of  tobacco  induces  many  chronic  affec- 
tions ;  the  disuse  of  it,  one  acute  affection,  The 
former  may  be  for  life,  the  latter  for  a  few  days 
only.  There  are  none  who  cannot  overcome  the 
habit  if  they  will  recognize  the  condition  induced 
by  the  giving  it  up  as  one  of  disease,  and  submit 
to  treatment  accordingly. 


234  TOBACCO. 

"If  the  will  is  stronger  than  the  appetite,  the 
man,  unaided  by  any  treatment,  can  overcome  it ; 
but  if  the  Avill  has  become  so  weakened  that  appe- 
tite is  the  more  powerful,  the  subject  yields  his 
will  and  appetite  prevails. 

"By  the  long  use  of  tobacco  we  have,  in  the 
smoker  or  chewer,  a  system  saturated  with  the 
poison ;  and  when  he  ceases  to  use  it,  the  nerves 
become  excited,  because  they  are  deprived  of  their 
accustomed  stimulus.  To  meet  this  want,  the 
system  is  drawn  upon  to  give  forth  the  latent  to- 
bacco that  has  become  deposited  in  the  tissues 
throughout  the  body.  In  this  effort,  it  is  aroused 
to  intense  action.  The  supply  failing  to  satisfy  the 
demand,  a  fever  ensues,  and  a  nervous  craving 
that  dominates  the  whole  being. 

"What  we  wish  to  do  is  to  allay  the  feverish 
condition  by  eliminating  the  poison,  and,  by  build- 
ing up  the  nervous  system,  to  render  its  action 
normal,  and  quiet  its  cravings. 

"  To  accomplish  the  first,  packing  in  wet  sheets, 
or  warm  bathing  that  will  induce  perspiration  are 
speedy  and  effective  methods.  To  prove  that 
poison  can  be  eliminated  from  the  body,  we  may 
experiment  upon  one  who  has  for  some  weeks  been 
using  the  tincture  of  iron.  Let  him  be  packed 
several  times  in  a  wet  sheet,  and  this  tincture  will 
be  drawn  through  the  pores,  so  that  the  sheet  will 
actually  begin  to  rot  away. 

"  A  warm  bath  at  bedtime,  for  a  few  da}^s, 
followed  by  a  brisk  rubbing  and  the  drinking  of 


MORAL   AND    SPIRITUAL    VIEW.  235 

hot  lemonade,  will  make  the  battle  with  the  habit 
comparatively  easy.  During  the  day,  whenever 
the  craving  becomes  intense,  two  or  three  swallows 
of  strong,  cold  lemonade  will  allay  it.  If  the  man 
be  going  from  home,  let  him  carry  a  supply  with 
him  for  the  time  of  need.  The  acid  of  lemons  is 
one  of  the  best  antidotes  for  this  and  many  other 
poisons." 

Medical  men  who  have  had  large  experience  in 
this  matter,  declare  that  instant  emancipation  is 
entirely  safe.  Says  Dr.  Kirkbride  :  "  I  have  never 
seen  the  slightest  injury  result  from  the  immediate 
and  total  breaking  oft*  the  habit  of  using  tobacco, 
and  the  experience  of  this  hospital  is  a  large  one 
in  this  particular." 

Another  physician  writes :  "  The  struggle  of 
the  sufferer  may  be  terrible  —  he  may  even  feel 
like  death.  But  there  is  no  danger  of  dying ; 
such  a  result  has  never  yet  happened.  Though 
the  pain  and  misery  are  intense,  their  duration  is 
short,  and,  when  once  over  the  bridge  that  spans 
the  great  chasm  of  reaction,  the  smoker  or  chewer 
can  raise  his  voice  and  shout :  — f  I  am  purged  of 
the  vile  weed;  I  am  free;  I  am  clean;  and  as 
long  as  I  live ,  I  will  continue  to  be  so.'  " 

But  the  world  is  not  yet  without  men  who  have 
had  "  backbone  "  enough  to  conquer  the  habit  by 
sheer  will.  The  head  of  the  eminent  house  which 
has  electrotyped  this  work  was  thirty-five  years 
ago  a  chewer  of  tobacco.  He  left  that  oft*  at  the 
advice  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  but  still  smoked. 


236  TOBACCO. 

Twenty-five  years  ago  he  lighted  his  last  cigar, 
and,  at  the  dictate  of  his  own  conscience,  threw  it 
away  unsmoked.  The  hope  of  humanity  is  in  such 
men,  who,  victorious  over  their  own  vices,  lead 
the  young  safely  into  paths  where  all  temptations 
to  slow  suicide  cease  to  be  attractive.  Xo  men 
more  than  the  ex-slaves  are  destined  to  prize 
liberty,  and  especially  if  they  have  won  it  for 
themselves. 

I  cannot  better  close  this  chapter  than  in  the  fol- 
lowing earnest  words  by  that  untiring  soldier  in  this 
warfare,  President  John  Bascom,  D.D.,  L.L.D. : 

"Many  sages  in  various  forms  of  philosophy, 
many  saints  in  diverse  phases  of  faith,  have  in- 
sisted on  the  conflict  between  lower  and  higher 
impulses  in  man,  between  the  flesh  and  the  spirit. 
"We  have  some  additional  wisdom  as  to  the  best 
method  of  stilling  this  strife ,  as  to  the  way  in  which 
the  two  sets  ot  powers  are  to  find  their  union  in 
higher  forms  of  work  ;  but  the  strife  itself  remains 
an  early  and  unavoidable  fact  in  moral  and  spirit- 
ual life.  The  trio  of  evil  influences  in  Christianity 
is  still  the  world,  tlie  flesh,  and  the  devil.  Cer- 
tainly the  use  of  tobacco  belongs  on  the  wrong  side 
of  this  enduring  struggle  into  which  we  all  enter 
singly  and  collectively.  It  belongs  to  the  flesh, 
and  smacks,  at  times,  of  both  the  other  two.  This 
habit  gains  ground  at  the  expense  of  emotional 
refinement  and  spiritual  force. 

"  There  is  scarcely  a  smoker  to  be  found  that 
does  not,  at  some  time,  in  a  careless  way,  put 


MORAL   AND   SPIRITUAL   VIEW.  237 

upon  others  the  discomfort  of  his  habit.  How  can 
it  be  otherwise?  He  is  driven  by  an  exacting 
demand,  whose  disagreeable  effects  are  very  much 
hidden  from  him.  The  smoker  loses  the  power  to 
see  himself  as  others  see  him.  If  those  wno  use 
tobacco  were  decidedly  in  the  minority,  the  habit 
would  be  thought  to  be  a  strange,  outlandish,  out- 
rageous perversion  of  the  decorum  of  life,  and,  in 
its  open  indulgence,  a  surprising  trespass  on  good 
taste  and  delicate  consideration.  I  thinK  we  shall 
see  this  to  be  so  if  we  consider  the  effect  the  habit 
of  chewing,  or  smoking  even,  would  have  on  our 
estimate  of  a  refined  woman.  The  union  is  almost 
an  impossibility.  Yet  there  is  nothing  but  the 
nature  of  the  habit  that  renders  the  use  of  tobacco 
unfit  in  a  woman.  It  is  superior  purity  and  refine- 
ment only  that  banish  it  from  such  a  presence. 

"  We  have  something  of  this  feeling,  though  un- 
fortunately in  a  much  less  degree,  in  connection 
with  the  most  noble-minded  and  venerable  men. 
Veneration  is  weakened  by  this  indulgence.  The 
very  mildest  word  we  can  apply  to  it  is  that  of  in- 
dulgence ,  and  the  earthly  appetite  carries  an  earth- 
ly odor  with  it  wherever  it  extends.  Old  age  casts 
no  glamour  over  habits,  but  leaves  them  to  stand 
on  their  own  merits.  The  infirm  old  man  who 
must  n^eds  have  his  snuff-box,  or  tobacco-box,  or 
pipe,  is  a  less  agreeable  inmate  of  any  home  than 
he  otherwise  would  be.  His  better  nature  does 
not  ascend  heavenward  in  and  by  this  smoke  of 


238  TOBACCO. 

sacrifice,  but  out  of  it,  and  in  spite  of  it,  if  it  ascends 
at  all.  Age  should  purge  away  the  grossness  of 
the  flesh,  should  stand  on  tiptoe  in  the  physical 
world,  and,  like  a  bursting  chrysalis,  hold  the 
wings  of  faith  astir.  The  best  that  can  be  said 
for  tobacco  under  such  conditions  is,  that  it  is  the 
expiring  appetite  of  an  expiring  body ;  one  not 
held  in  subjection  by  the  spirit,  but  one  that  has 
subjected  the  spirit  to  itself.  The  only  fortune 
that  remains  to  such  a  one  is  the  fortune  of  escap- 
ing from  himself.  We  can  conceive  of  no  refining 
process,  that  fits  one  as  pure  gold  for  a  New 
Jerusalem,  that  would  not  quickly,  at  the  very 
outset,  refine  away  this  habit.  The  Kiver  of  Life 
does  not  flow  through  a  tobacco  field." 


TOBACCO  INDICTED  AND  TRIED. 


INDICTMENT. 


It  is  a  formidable  indictment  that  has  been 
brought  against  tobacco,  but  I  have  sought  to  sus- 
tain every  point  by  evidence  from  trustworthy  wit- 
nesses, many  of  them  entirely  outside  of  any  reform 
movement. 

It  has  been  shown  what  a  fearful  expenditure  of 
time  and  money  is  involved  in  the  use  of  this  nar- 
cotic ;  what  an  interminable  train  of  physical  and 
intellectual  evils  follows  in  its  path ;  how  it  some- 
times destroys  the  liner  sentiments  and  lowers  the 
whole  tone  of  a  man's  character,  rendering  him 
inconsiderate,  selfish,  and  discourteous ;  how  it 
tends  to  unman  and  annualize,  if  not  to  brutalize. 

But  worse  than  this  is  the  deep  injury  it  inflicts 
on  the  moral  and  spiritual  nature,  planting  in  the 
system  an  appetite  which  not  only  renders  its  vic- 
tim obtuse  in  his  nicer  perceptions,  but  which 
deadens  his  conscience,  cuts  the  sinews  of  his  will, 
and  bears  him  irresistibly  onward  in  a  course  of 
vicious  indulgence,  over-riding  reason,  charity, 
love  for  wife  and  children,  and  whatever  else  would 

239 


240  TOBACCO 

stay  its  progress,  and,  more  dreadful  still,  trans- 
mitting a  heritage  of  physical  and  mental  disease 
even  to  the  third  and  fourth  Generation. 

Certain  I  am  that  in  all  the  light  which  science 
and  medicine,  experience  and  observation,  have 
cast  upon  its  character,  the  cases  are  exceedingly 
rare  in  which  an  intelligent  tobacco-victim  is  not 
sometimes  disturbed  by  doubts  as  to  the  rightful- 
ness of  the  indulgence.  Think,  then,  of  the  injury 
to  his  moral  nature  from  persistence  in  it ! 

The  shutting  one's  eyes  against  overwhelming 
evidence,  the  poor  attempts  at  justification  — who 
has  not  witnessed  all  this?  And  even  where  the 
admission  of  wrong  is  clear  and  abundant,  how 
many  fail  in  their  endeavors  to  reform  !  "  There 
is  probably  no  tobacco-user  in  the  world,"* 
writes  Beecher,  w  who  would  advise  a  young  man 
to  commence  this  habit.  Yet  against  all  advice, 
against  nausea  and  disgust,  against  cleanliness, 
against  every  consideration  of  health  and  comfort, 
thousands  every  year  bow  the  neck  to  this  drug, 
and  consent  to  wear  its  repulsive  yoke." 

The  question  presses :  How  shall  we  stem, 
if  we  cannot  turn  the  mighty  current?  Shall  we 
petition  Congress  to  pass  laws  for  abating  this 
nuisance? 

But  are  not  many  of  our  wise  men  and  our 
honorables  in  both  houses  in  complicity  with  it? 
Are  they  not  themselves  helping  to  swell  the 
current?  Seeing  that  tobacco-users  form  the 
great   majority   of  voters  in  both  parties  in  this 


INDICTED   AND   TRIED.  241 

republic,  and  that  non-smoking  men  are  hardly 
ever  found  in  political  conventions,  of  what  avail 
would  be  petitions  to  Congress  ? 

A  writer  in  the  Independent  remarks  :  ff  Those 
whom  we  esteem  and  love  share  in  the  indulgence. 
Our  theological  seminaries  are  scarcely  cleaner 
than  our  colleges  .  .  .  and  as  for  the  lawyers  and 
politicians,  one  is  under  suspicion  of  being  ascetic, 
mean,  or  somehow  unfinished,  if  he  does  not 
smoke.  We  know  of  some  districts  where  a  man 
could  not  be  elected  to  Congress  if  it  were  thor- 
oughly known  that  he  disapproved  of  the  use  of 
tobacco  in  any  form." 

A  strong  indication  of  the  prevalent  feeling  is 
contained  in  the  Report,  December  1884,  of  Hugh 
McCulloch,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  Here  is  a 
passage  : — 

"An  article  which  is  so  generally  used  as  tobacco, 
and  which  adds  so  much  to  the  comfort  of  the  large 
numbers  of  our  population  who  earn  their  living 
by  manual  labor,  cannot  properly  be  considered 
a  luxury,  and  as  the  collection  of  the  tax  is  ex- 
pensive and  troublesome  to  the  Government,  and 
is  especially  obnoxious  and  irritative  to  small 
manufacturers,  the  tax  upon  tobacco  should,  in  my 
judgment,  be  removed." 

In  view  of  such  a  proposal  from  so  high  a  source 
—  a  proposal  that  entirely  ignores  moral  consider- 
ations—  we  might  well  despair,  did  we  not  know 
that,  in  the  days  of  our  fathers,  whiskey  was  not- 
regarded  as  a  luxury,  but  as  a  necessary  of  life, 


2i2  TOBACCO 

especially  for  laboring  men.  And  now,  as  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  goes  on  to  say,  "The 
tax  upon  whiskey  could  not  be  repealed  without 
a  disregard  of  public  sentiment." 

But  how  shall  we  bring  about  a  similar  change 
in  public  sentiment  concerning  this  poisonous  drug? 

Shall  we  implore  the  pulpit  and  the  press  to  cry 
aloud  and  spare  not  ?  Thank  God  for  all  that  has 
been  done  and  is  now  doimx !  Thanks  for  that 
fearless  champion,  George  Trask,  who  fought 
single-handed  till  he  went  up  to  take  his  crown ! 

The  pulpit  and  the  press  !  The  authorized  re- 
bukers  of  wrong,  the  creators  of  public  sentiment ! 
Sorry  am  I  to  be  obliged  to  admit  that  so  many  of 
the  moral  and  religious  leaders  in  the  land,  —  the 
sJtould-be  besiegers  in  this  warfare, — are  them- 
selves among  the  besieged,  that  it  is  considered 
too  delicate  a  subject  to  be  dealt  with  uncompro- 
misingly. One  is  permitted  to  walk  softly  round 
about  it,  and  to  touch  it  very  carefully ;  but  no 
sword  must  be  lifted,  lest  blood  be  drawn  ;  no 
gun  fired,  lest  somebody  chance  to  get  hurt.  And 
all  this  trembling  solicitude  lest,  forsooth,  it  might 
possibly  reflect  on  many  excellent  Christians,  in- 
cluding not  a  few  ministers,  elders,  and  deacons, 
and  thus  injure  their  influence  !  But  does  our 
Book  of  books  set  an  example  in  favor  of  such 
delicate  approaches?  Does  it  hesitate  to  make 
unsparing  comments  on  the  most  saintly  sinners? 
Not  so  do  we  read  it. 


INDICTED    AND    TRIED.  243 


OBJECTORS    SUMMONED. 

"  But  the  appetite  is  so  imperious." 

No  one  can  deny  this.  Its  clamorings  are  more 
urgent  than  those  even  of  hunger  and  thirst.  Neal 
Dow  relates  that  when  Pumpelly,  in  his  tour  round 
the  world,  found  himself  and  others  in  a  great 
desert  without  food  or  water,  they  sent  off  men 
after  supplies.  And  for  what  did  these  famishing 
sufferers  beg,  as  they  hastened  to  meet  the  return- 
ing messengers  ?  "Food?  We  were  almost  starving. 
Drink?  We  were  almost  perishing  with  thirst. 
No,  we  asked  for  no  food,  for  no  drink,  but  for 
tobacco." 

While  on  the  Pacific,  the  vessel  went  down. 
Pumpelly  relates  that  as  the  life-boat,  his  last 
chance  for  preservation,  was  getting  off,  he  be- 
thought him  of  his  cigars,  and  rushed  below  to 
seize  them,  adding  coolly,  "  People  who  smoke  will 
understand  why  1  was  ready  and  willing  to  risk 
my  life  for  a  few  cigars" 

Yea,  verily,  the  appetite  is  "imperious."  It  is 
a  tyrant  whose  dominion  is  absolute.  All  the 
more  reason,  then,  why  it  should  be  trampled 
under  foot.  Unless  you  set  upon  the  tempter 
your  iron  heel,  it  may  strike  its  fangs  through 
body  and  soul. 

"  With  all  your  assertions  and  facts  as  to  the 
injurious  influence  of  tobacco,  smokers  sometimes 
attain  a  great  age." 

Simply  quoting  the  adage   that  "one   swallow 


244  TOBACCO 

does  n't  make  a  summer,"  I  will  refer  to  George 
Trask's  disposal  of  this  same  plea,  when  the  ease 
was  brought  up  of  a  great  smoker  who  lived  till 
he  was  a  hundred  and  four.  After  making  several 
inquiries,  he  summed  them  up  :  ff  In  a  word,  did 
he  love  anybody,  or  hate  anybody,  dead  or  alive. 
in  this  world  or  in  any  world?"  "I  think  not." 
"Well,  well,  your  old  man  died  fifty  years  ago, 
and  your  only  mistake  was  that  you  did  n't  bury 
him." 

An  eminent  physician  remarks  that  although, 
owing  to  the  wonderful  power  of  toleration  in  the 
S3'stem,  there  are  occasional  instances  of  long  life 
among  tobacco-users,  as  among  drinking  men  and 
opium-eaters,  yet  it  is,  with  rare  exceptions,  only 
a  dragging,  half-and-half  life,  the  natural  and 
moral  forces  being  greatly  diminished. 

There  are  good  men,  and  men  wise  in  most  mat- 
ters, who  say :  "  Tobacco  belongs  to  the  same 
category  as  tea  and  coffee,  sweetmeats  and  confec- 
tionery, which  are  to  be  taken  with  discretion. 
When  thus  used,  and  in  a  manner  gentlemanly 
and  Christian,  its  use  is  fitting  and  proper." 

Xow  let  the  examples  of  this  discreet,  gentle- 
manly, and  Christian  use  be  given,  and  that  so 
plainly  that  there  shall  be  no  mistake,  —  examples 
by  which  no  religious  principle  is  violated,  no 
fellow-mortal  harmed  or  annoyed,  least  of  all,  one's 
neighbor,  or  friend,  or  bosom-companion. 

But,  for  argument's  sake,  granting  this  immacu- 
late method,  how  about  those  abundant  testimonies 


JXDICTED   AND   TRIED.  245 

of  medical  and  scientific  men  to  its  injurious  effects 
on  body  and  mind  ?  Can  it  be  doubted  that  every 
candid  man,  however  inveterate  his  habit,  would 
be  led  by  a  thorough  examination  to  the  one  con- 
clusion? Benjamin  Franklin  affirms  that  "he 
never  knew  a  person  who  used  tobacco  habitually 
that  would  recommend  another  to  do  the  same." 

A  young  man  tells  me  that  when  a  boy  he  was 
made  so  sick  by  his  first  and  second  cigars  that  he 
desisted  from  farther  attempts ;  and  that,  some 
years  later,  on  expressing  to  his  smoking  com- 
panions his  regret  that  he  did  not  persevere  till  he 
had  conquered  his  repugnance,  they  replied, 
f*  Don't  talk  so ;  for,  on  our  part,  we  thoroughly 
regret  that  we  did  persevere." 

Does  the  victim  plead,  "  I  smoke  but  little,  not 
enough  to  harm  me  any,  and  I  can  break  off  at 
any  time  ?  " 

My  friend,  you  have  little  idea  how  completely 
tobacco  is  robbing  you  of  your  power.  You  can 
break  off  at  any  time?  Then,  if  you  are  a  wise 
man,  you  will  do  it  instantly,  else  the  sly  enchant- 
ress may  bring  you  into  a  bondage  where  you 
can't  break  off. 

M  I,  surely,  cannot  be  called  a  smoker;  fori  in- 
dulge in  a  cigar  only  on  rare  occasions,  such  as  in 
vacations  or  on  Christmas  and  other  red-letter 
days." 

Just  enough  to  temporize  with  conscience,  and 
utterly  to  nullify  any  good  influence  on  the  subject 
which  you  might  otherwise  exert.     An  eminent 


246  TOBACCO 

and  popular  divine,  who  entirely  repudiates  all 
narcotic  stimulants  while  engaged  in  his  minis- 
terial duties,  frankly  admits  that  when  off  duty  he 
now  and  then  smokes  a  cigar.  It  may  seem  pre- 
sumption in  me  to  comment  on  this  apparent 
inconsistency  in  so  devoted  a  pastor  and  so  excel- 
lent a  man,  especially  as  it  is  claimed  that  such  an 
example  illustrates  the  power  of  self-government. 
But  would  not  the  entire  subjugation  of  this  habit 
show  a  far  higher  degree  of  self-government?  So 
conscientious  is  this  divine,  that  I  verily  believe, 
if  he  would  look  on  all  sides  of  the  question,  he 
would  no  longer  stand  on  dubious  ground,  but 
would  place  himself  in  the  sight  of  all  men  in  the 
most  uncompromising  attitude  towards  the  tobacco 
habit. 

"But  the  poverty-stricken  in  our  almshouses, 
and  the  criminals  in  our  jails,  prisons,  and  peniten- 
tiaries, ought  not  to  be  deprived  of  this  comfort. 
Even  some  of  their  overseers  approve  its  use, 
believing,  under  the  circumstances,  that  it  is  a 
preventive  to  a  worse  demoralization." 

Is  tobacco,  then,  to  be  regarded  as  an  indis- 
pensable in  such  institutions,  not  a  few  of  whose 
inmates  it  has  been,  more  or  less  directly,  the 
means  of  brinofinor  there?  And  is  this  deteriorating 
luxury  to  be  furnished  them  at  the  expense  of  the 
industrious  and  the  law-abiding?  The  inmates 
need  every  possible  reformatory  influence  that  can 
be  brought  to  bear  upon  them.  Is  this  such  an 
influence  ? 


INDICTED   AND   TRIED.  247 

r<  We  plead  for  the  poor  sailor  in  his  isolation 
from  the  world.  By  all  means,  let  him  retain  his 
tobacco." 

The  surroundings  of  sailors  are  sufficiently  un- 
favorable to  mental  and  moral  growth  without 
unnecessary  additions.  There  is  a  tendency  to 
sluggishness  in  the  monotony  of  sea-life,  which 
needs  to  be  resisted  rather  than  strengthened. 
Shall  the  sailor,  then,  be  encouraged  to  use  a  nar- 
cotic which  aggravates  the  difficulty  he  constantly 
encounters  ?  Though  he  has  the  broad  ocean  for 
a  quarantine,  and  can  use  tobacco  with  less  annoy- 
ance to  others  and  less  peril  to  himself  than  any 
other  class,  shall  we  not  make  every  effort  to  free 
him  from  the  bondage  of  this  appetite,  and  to 
devise  some  resource  which,  instead  of  benumbing 
the  faculties  and  killing  all  ambition,  shall  arouse 
and  stimulate? 

In  some  of  our  boarding-schools  for  boys,  we  no 
sooner  enter  the  hall  door  than  we  are  startled  by 
the  sickening  fumes  which  rush  forth.  So  sur- 
prised are  we  that  we  can  scarcely  gather  voice 
to  speak.  The  boys  are  evidently  learning  some 
things  on  which  we  little  reckoned,  and  from  a 
most  unexpected  quarter.  And  you,  a  gentleman, 
a  Christian,  perhaps,  to  whose  care  a  confiding 
mother  has  trusted,  it  may  be,  her  only  boy  ;  you, 
whom  he  is  accustomed  to  look  up  to  as  his  model, 
are  giving  him,  by  your  example,  his  first  lesson 
in  this  vice  !  You  surely  have  not  considered  how 
harmful  it  has  proved  to  the  young,  so  much  so 


US  TOBACCO 

that  by  decree  of  certain  governments,  not  over  apt 
to  magnify  moral  issues,  tobacco  in  every  form  has 
been  forbidden  in  their  national  institutions. 

M  But  my  pupils  are  girls  or  young  women,  and 
my  smoking  cannot  injure  them." 

So  be  it,  if  to  lessen  their  respect,  and  to  make 
your  presence  an  offence  to  them — yes,  and  a  posi- 
tive harm, — if  in  this  there  is  no  injury.  And 
what  of  the  example  to  their  brothers  ?  Let  us  not 
deceive  ourselves  in  such  matters.  The  young 
folks  are  better  logicians  than  we  fancy.  What  is 
right  for  the  elder  people,  they  argue,  cannot  be 
wrong  for  the  younger. 

One  of  the  most-needed  lessons  for  the  children 
of  this  free  and  easy  generation  is  that  of  unswerv- 
ing loyalty  to  principle.  If  we  would  have  men 
and  women  of  character  and  stability,  we  must 
have  children  and  youth  who  can  say  No,  and  say 
it  emphatically  and  persistently.  They  must  learn 
that  every  violation  of  law,  whether  physical,  in- 
tellectual, or  moral,  is  sure  to  be  followed,  sooner 
or  later,  by  its  inevitable  penalty.  To  all  the 
enervating  self-indulgences,  the  doubtful  practices 
to  which  they  are  continually  tempted,  they  should 
form  the  habit  of  giving  an  instant  and  imperative 
denial.  Let  us  have  an  army  of  young  people 
thus  trained,  and  the  tobacco-warfare  will  be  suc- 
cessfully waged. 


INDICTED   AND  TRIED.  249 


PLEA    WITH    WOMAN. 

Writes  Kev.  Dr.  Brand  of  Oberlin :  "  When 
young  ladies  fully  commit  themselves  against  any 
social  and  degrading  custom,  especially  among 
young  men,  that  custom  will  begin  to  disappear. 
Woman  certainly  has  the  right,  among  many  other 
things,  to  noble  companionship  and  pure  air,  and 
it  would  be  a  very  encouraging  sign  to  see  her 
assert  it." 

A  woman's  crusade  would  be  a  more  hopeful 
movement  than  anything  which  could  possibly  be 
devised.  Mention  has  been  made  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts ordinance  prohibiting  the  use  of  tobacco 
at  the  polls.  One  of  the  law-makers  who  worked 
for  this  bill  writes  :  ff  The  inspiration  for  the  act 
came  from  woman.  And,  as  in  all  other  matters 
when  woman  speaks,  she  does  it  on  the  side  of  the 
refining  and  elevating  influences  of  life." 

All  admit  that  woman  has  much  to  do  in  fixing 
the  moral  tone  of  society.  By  every  consideration, 
then,  financial,  hygienic,  aesthetic,  mental,  and 
moral,  all  which  are  ignored,  and,  to  a  greater  or 
less  extent,  violated  by  the  habit,  —  women,  who, 
on  account  of  it,  suffer  as  but  few  imagine,  are 
called  upon  to  give  the  whole  weight  of  their  in- 
fluence, singly  and  collectively,  against  it.  If  they 
raise  their  banner,  and  in  the  name  of  God  under- 
take the  war,  they  cannot  fail  to  batter  down  this 
grim  Moloch  past  all  resurrection. 


250  TOBACCO 


TOBACCO  BATTLES. 

Desperate  as  may  seem  the  undertaking,  there  is 
room  for  hope,  —  sometimes,  even,  when  the  case 
seems  darkest.  Many  years  ago  there  was  a  grad- 
uate of  Andover  Theological  Seminary  who  was 
unusually  popular  and  successful  in  his  ministry 
for  two  or  three  years,  and  then  broke  down.  He 
soon  became  a  violent  maniac,  and  was  sent  to  an 
insane  asylum.  Xo  one  divined  that  the  cause  of 
this  wreck  was  tobacco,  or,  if  this  was  suspected, 
strangely  enough,  he  was  still  allowed  to  use  it. 
There,  in  his  prison-house,  champing  tobacco  day 
and  night,  he  paced  up  and  down  for  twenty  years, 
cursing  himself,  his  wife,  and  his  children,  and 
dealing  "  damnation  round  the  land."  One  day, 
while  thus  walking  back  and  forth,  he  stopped 
abruptly  and  asked  himself,  ft  What  brought  me 
here  ?  Tobacco,"  he  exclaimed  indignantly.  Then, 
breaking  into  tears,  he  flung  through  the  grating 
his  vile  plug,  and,  looking  up  to  heaven,  cried,  "O 
God,  help,  help  !     I  will  use  no  more." 

God  listened  to  his  agonized  entreaty,  and  out 
of  the  heavens  reached  down  to  him  a  delivering 
hand.  With  the  dropping  of  his  poison  his  reason 
and  health  gradually  returned,  and  he  re-entered 
the  ministry,  in  which  he  labored  earnestly  for  ten 
years,  when,  with  the  respect  and  affection  of  all, 
he  went  into  the  better  world. 

It  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  quote  the  substance 


INDICTED   AND   TRIED.  251 

of  a  letter  I  once  received  from  a  clergyman  who 
has  passed  into  the  other  life,  simply  explaining 
that  the  subject  had  often  been  urged  upon  him 
while  he  was  a  theological  student :  — 

"  I  have  left  off  smoking.  I  indulged  in  it  till  I 
was  thoroughly  convinced  that  it  was  not  only  op- 
posed to  the  fine  socialities  of  life,  but  that  it  was 
detrimental  to  health,  befooling  to  the  intellect,  and 

'  CO        o  ' 

stupefying  to  the  sensibilities.  I  will  give  you  a 
few  details  of  its  moral  bearings  :  — 

w  f  If  meat  make  my  brother  to  offend,  I  will  eat 
no  flesh  while  the  world  standeth.'  A  very  prac- 
tical text ;  but  I  was  a  smoker,  and  that  habit  was 
opposed  to  the  best  Christian  sense  of  my  brethren, 
and  even  by  many  who  were  not  Christians  was 
regarded  as  a  vice.  I  must  waive  that  subject,  lest 
my  people  say,  f  Physician,  heal  thyself.' 

"  I  wanted  to  preach  upon  the  duty  of  self-denial 
—  a  duty  which  needs  often  to  be  urged ;  but  the 
idea  of  a  smoker  preaching  such  a  sermon  was 
simply  ridiculous.     That  must  be  delayed,  then. 

"The  subject  of  temperance  came  up.  I  felt 
that  I  ought  to  preach  upon  it ;  but  I  could  find 
no  sound  premise  from  which  to  reason  that  was 
not  destructive  to  my  peace  as  a  smoker. 

"  I  wished  to  preach  on  benevolence  —  saving  the 
littles  for  Christ ;  but  my  cigar  bill  faced  me. 

M  It  was  my  daily  prayer  that  God  would  cleanse 
my  heart  from  sin.  Conscience  would  whisper : 
Smohirig  is  sin. 

*  I  wanted  to  visit  my  people.     Both  my  clothes 


252  TOBACCO 

and  my  breath  indicated  that  I  had  been  smoking. 
I  had  a  little  rather  they  would  not  know  it ;  be- 
sides, it  might  be  offensive  to  them.  I  must  stay 
at  home. 

"  I  needed  two  or  three  hours  of  vigorous  exer- 
cise ;  but  I  smoked  after  each  meal,  and  an  hour 
and  a  half  or  two  hours  were  gone.  A  good 
smoke  requires  an  hour.  I  had  no  time  for  exer- 
cise, and  I  soon  got  so  it  was  irksome ;  in  fine,  I 
grew  lazy. 

"  But  I  forbear.  I  don't  know  how  others  get 
along  with  these  daily  experiences ;  but  I  could 
endure  them  no  longer,  and  I  am  no  longer  a 
smoker.  I  relate  these  experiences  because  I  know 
you  have  a  disposition  to  trouble  people's  con- 
sciences about  this  sin ;  but  a  sinner  knows  best 
how  a  sinner  feels,  and  the  above  items  may  help 
you.  Besides,  I  owe  you  this  confession  as  an 
evidence  of  approval  of  your  efforts  and  arguments 
for  my  reform  in  this  matter." 

Dr.  Henson's  experience,  as  related  by  himself, 
is  most  encouraging  as  well  as  instructive.  He 
had  long  been  in  trouble  on  account  of  his  tobacco- 
habit,  having  a  sense  of  personal  defilement,  and 
realizing  the  possibility  of  coming  to  "such  a  pass 
of  palpable  filthiness  "  as  some  others  whom  he  had 
observed.  And  along  with  this,  he  says,  K  came  the 
conviction  that  tobacco-using  was  against  nature; 
and  seeing  that  God  is  the  God  of  nature  as  well 
as  grace,  I  could  not  help  feeling  that  in  running 
against  nature,  I  was  running  against  not  it  only, 


INDICTED    AND   TREED.  253 

but  Him;  and  this,  I  was  persuaded,  was  not  a 
thing  to  be  safely  done  ;  for,  however  slowly  God's 
mills  grind,  *  they  grind  exceeding  small,'  and 
sooner  or  later,  as  sure  as  we  live,  they  will  grind 
exactly  all.  .  .1  could  not  urge  my  people  to  f  lay 
apart  all  filthiness  and  superfluity  of  naughti- 
ness,' while  the  traces  of  such  superfluity  were  dis- 
coverable in  my  breath  and  on  my  body.  I  could 
not  insist  that  they  should  '  keep  the  body  under,' 
if  my  body  kept  me  under. 

"  More  and  more  imperious  grew  the  demands 
of  an  appetite  that  finally  became  impatient  of 
almost  any  intermission  in  its  accustomed  gratifica- 
tion. .  .  .  I  endeavored  to  persuade  myself  that  the 
Lord  did  not  concern  himself  about  such  a  trivial 
matter,  and  said  to  myself,  f  Is  it  not  a  little  one, 
and  my  soul  shall  live  ? '  But  I  had  preached  from 
that  text  too  often,  and  to  too  many  just  such  sin- 
ners as  myself,  to  extract  much  comfort  out  of  it. 
I  remembered  that  Scripture,  f  He  that  eateth  is 
damned  if  he  doubt ; '  and  I  more  than  doubted, 
and  so  was  involved  in  danger. 

"  Then  I  deliberately,  solemnly,  prayerfully  de- 
termined, God  helping  me,  to  have  done  with 
tobacco  at  once  and  forever. 

"  It  was  just  a  question,  and  one  of  exceeding  grav- 
ity, as  to  the  possible  consequences  of  so  sudden  and 
complete  a  revolution  in  the  whole  habits  of  my  life. 
But  having  decided  that  it  was  the  Christian  thing 
for  me  to  do,  there  was  nothing  left  but  to  do  it, 
trusting  Him  for  whose  sake  I  did  it  to  take  care 


254  TOBACCO 

of  all  the  consequences.  And  He  did,  in  the  most 
surprising  and  beautiful  way. 

"  I  could  no  more  have  made  a  sermon  than  1 
could  have  built  a  locomotive.  And  this  continued 
for  five  weeks,  in  which  I  was  wrapped  in f  an  horror 
of  great  darkness,  and  the  very  hair  of  my  flesh 
stood  up.' 

"  At  length  my  mind,  long  eclipsed,  came  out  like 
the  moon  when  it  has  swept  past  the  shadow  .  .  . 
and  if  my  whole  life-work  is  not  being  better  done 
and  upon  a  higher  plane,  as  I  hope  it  is,  I  have  a 
f  comfort  in  my  conscience '  which  is  to  me  of  in- 
calculable value." 

FIXAL    APPEAL. 

The  Levites  were  required  to  be  thoroughly  clean 
and  pure.  And  even  among  the  lamas,  or  priests, 
the  rules  of  Buddha  strictly  interdicted  the  use 
of  tobacco.  Shall  the  Christian  priesthood  be 
behind  the  Levitical  or  the  Buddhist  ?  Shall  that 
be  allowed  in  our  churches  which  would  not  for 
one  moment  have  been  tolerated  in  Jewish,  Chinese, 
or  Indian  temples  ? 

It  were  blasphemous  to  imagine  the  Master  and 
his  disciples  chewing  or  smoking,  as  they  sat  to- 
gether on  the  mountain's  side  or  sailed  over  Lake 
Gennesaret,  or  passed  from  the  Supper  to  the 
Garden.  Who  does  not  shudder  at  the  bare  thought, 
inveterate  chewer  or  smoker  though  he  be  ! 

And  must  we  have  tobacco-chewers  in  the  Lord's 
house  !  Spittoons  in  the  pews  and  in  the  pulpit  — 


INDICTED   AND   TRIED.  255 

a  dreadful  need-be,  or  else  what  is  far  worse?  Oh 
for  some  Divine  purifying  hand  that  with  its  scourge 
of  small  cords  shall  drive  from  the  sanctuary  all 
these  incongruous,  uncleanly  sights  and  smells  ! 
Oh  for  a  breath  from  the  heavenly  heights  that 
shall  lead  every  Christian,  whether  minister  or  lay- 
man, to  wash  his  hands  and  cleanse  his  garments 
in  innocency  of  this  habit ! 

"It  would  be  a  sweet  and  blessed  thing,"  writes 
one,  "  if,  in  addition  to  all  a  man's  positive  works 
of  good  in  life,  he  could  say,  when  he  comes  to  die, 
1  I  have  not  consciously  done  a  single  thing,  in 
eating  or  drinking  or  pleasure,  that  I  thought  had 
a  tendency  to  mislead  or  stumble  to  their  destruc- 
tion, any  of  those  around  me  !'  " 

This  tobacco  problem  is  truly  appalling.  From 
the  rapid  increase  of  the  evil ;  from  its  prevalence 
among  all  classes  ;  above  all,  from  the  sanction  of 
men  high  in  position,  it  is  threatening  us  with 
national  degeneracy  and  degradation. 

Is  it,  then,  an  impertinence  for  me  to  make  a 
respectful,  but  most  urgent  appeal  to  every  editor, 
philanthropist,  and  Christian,  to  every  minister 
and  teacher,  to  every  college  and  every  theo- 
logical professor,  to  every  member  of  a  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association,  and  above  all,  to 
every  wife  and  mother  and  daughter  and  sister 
in  the  land,  not  only  that  you  rid  yourselves  of 
all  complicity  with  this  terrible  evil,  but  that, 
with  downright  earnestness  and  persistence,  you 
make  common  cause  against  it. 


APPENDIX. 


SOLUTION  OF  THE  PROBLEM. 

The  "Easy  Chair"  of  Harper,  February,  1885, 
replies  to  the  complaints  of  "  Clarissa "  against 
gentlemen-smokers.  From  this  reply  a  passage  is 
given :  — 

M  And  has  Clarissa  done  all  her  duty  ?  Has  she 
plainly  apprised  those  gilded  satellites  of  hers, 
1  who  wear  the  garb  of  gentlemen,  and  verily  be- 
lieve themselves  to  be  such,'  that  they  must  choose 
between  her  and  a  cigarette,  and  that  they  cannot 
simultanously  enjoy  smoking  and  her  society? 
Has  she  taken  occasion  to  intimate  that,  in  her 
opinion,  no  gentleman,  truly  so  called,  smokes  in 
the  street?  .  .  .  The  problem  that  Clarissa  pro- 
pounds can  best  be  solved  by  her  and  her  friends. 
There  are  classes  of  offenders,  indeed,  whose 
smoke  can  be  stayed  only  by  stringent  laws,  vig- 
orously enforced.  These  may  be  described  as 
'persons  in  the  form  of  man.'  But  that  other 
large  company  f  who  wear  the  garb  of  gentlemen ' 
are  amenable  to  the  influences  of  Clarissa,  and 
such  smoke  she  and  her  sister  sylphs  can  suppress  " 
(The  Italics  are  mine.) 

257 


258  TOBACCO. 

This  is  an  absolute  certainty.  If  woman  only 
ivill,  she  can  effectually  solve  the  problem.  Will 
she  disregard  her  responsibilities  ? 

WHY    SHALL   NOT   YOUNG   LADIES    SMOKE? 

The  following  is  from  "The  Christian  Union"  :  — 
"  I  wish  you  would  tell  me  if  it  is  f  the  thing ' 
for  a  young  lady  to  smoke  ?  My  brother  Will  is 
a  great  smoker,  and  he  has  taught  me  to  be  very 
fond  of  the  aroma  of  his  cigarettes.  I  think  it  is 
just  delicious,  and  I  envy  him,  oh,  so  much  !  when, 
after  tea,  he  sits  out  on  the  piazza  and  smokes  his 
cigar,  and  watches  the  smoke  curl  away  from  it 
in  those  beautiful  little  clouds.  I  have  often 
wished  I  was  a  man,  so  that  I  could  smoke.  But 
Will  has  always  laughed  at  me.  Once  he  just 
let  me  try  one  whiff  of  his  cigar,  and  it  was,  oh, 
so  nice  !  —  nobody  was  looking,  you  know.  The 
other  day  my  cousin  Ned  was  at  our  house,  and  he 
sa}Ts  it  is  quite  'the  thing'  for  a  young  lady  to 
smoke ;  that  there  are  cigarettes  made  just  for 
them ,  and  that  it  is  all  the  rage ;  and  I  want 
to  know  if  it  is  so,  for  if  it  is f  the  thins: '  I  am  going 
to  smoke  too,  I  don't  care  what  Will  says ;  for  it 
is  just  as  nice  for  a  lady  as  for  a  gentleman  to 
smoke,  and  I  don't  see  any  reason  why  the 
gentlemen  should  have  all  the  nice  things ;  do 
you?" 

Young  gentlemen,  shall  your  sister,  or  sweet- 
heart, or  wife  offer  up  her  daily  incense  with 
yours  on  the  altar  of  your  idol  ?     Why  not  ? 


APPENDIX.  259 


A    SALUTARY   GIFT. 


In  1868  Mr.  James  Sugden  of  New  York  city, 
gave  to  the  Trustees  of  Kutgers  College,  New 
Brunswick,  the  sum  of  two  thousand  dollars,  the 
interest  to  be  used  for  the  purchase  of  books, 
which  were  to  be  divided  among  the  senior  class 
in  the  Theological  Seminary  of  the  Reformed 
Church,  who  would  sign  a  pledge  to  abstain  for- 
ever from  the  use  of  tobacco  in  any  form.  The 
professor  to  whom  this  charge  was  entrusted, 
writes  :  —  "I  have  secured  from  six  to  ten  pledges 
annually,  and  in  many  cases  from  students  who  had 
been  in  the  habit  of  smoking  or  chewing,  or  both. 
This  fund  has  the  influence  to  call  attention  to  the 
subject,  and  it  has  done  much  to  create  a  public 
sentiment  against  the  habit.  It  may  not  be  entirely 
owing  to  this  fund,  but  it  is  a  fact  that. the  use  of 
tobacco  grows  less  year  by  year  among  our  theo- 
logical students,  so  that  whereas  formerly  nearly 
all  used  it,  now  nearly  all  abstain  from  it." 

A   NEW   VOTARY. 

A  correspondent  of  the  London  Telegraph  writes 
from  Egypt :  — 

"I  have  just  discovered  that  my  camel  is  an 
inveterate  lover  of  the  weed.  Let  any  one  smoke 
a  pipe,  cigar,  or  cigarette  in  the  compound  called 
stables,  and  the  camel  will  follow  the  smoker 
about,  place  his  nose  close  to  the  burning  tobacco, 
inhale  the  fumes  with  a  prolonged  sniff,  swallow- 


260  TOBACCO. 

ing  the  smoke,  and  then,  throwing  his  head  up, 
with  mouth  agape  and  eyes  upturned,  showing 
the  blood-shot  whites,  will  grunt  a  sigh  of  ecstasy 
that  would  make  the  fortune  of  a  low  comedian  in 
a  love  scene.  This  is  the  plain,  unvarnished  fact, 
easy  of  corroboration.  AVhat  have  the  Anti- 
Tobacco  League  to  say  about  it?" 

I  think  they  would  say  that  the  gradual  deterio- 
ration of  camels  is  of  far  less  consequence  than 
that  of  mankind,  and  would  therefore  propose  that 
all  the  tobacco  the  world  produces  should  be  sent 
for  their  use,  that  by  their  vicarious  endurance  of 
its  penalties  man  might  be  spared. 

ANOTHER   ESTHETIC   FACT. 

In  our  large  cities  much  of  the  cut  tobacco  is 
manufactured  in  mills  erected  for  the  purpose. 
A  good  part  of  the  material  is  gathered  from  the 
sweepings  of  bar-rooms,  streets,  and  sewers,"  con- 
sisting mainly  of  cigar  stumps  and  old  cuds  of 
tobacco  which  have  been  chewed  and  cast  away. 
Conceive  the  loathsome  diseases  thus  generated ! 

REPLY  TO  MATTHEW  ARNOLD. 

Matthew  Arnold's  remark  about  wine-drinking, 
that  it  ff  adds  to  the  agreeableness  of  life,  and 
therefore  to  its  resources  and  powers,"  has  by 
some  been  applied  to  tobacco. 

It  has  been  the  object  of  this  book  to  show  that 
so  far  as  others  besides  the  user  are  concerned, 
tobacco  adds  to  the  cZzsa^reeableness  of  life,  and  in 


APPENDIX.  261 

its  results,  later  on,  to  that  of  the  user  also,  so 
that,  instead  of  adding  to,  it  subtracts  from,  the 
"  resources  and  powers  "  of  life,  as  well  as  from  its 
"  agreeableness." 

SMOKERS    IN   THE   PEW. 

A  lady  writes  :  — 

"  I  am  hospitably  inclined  towards  strangers  in 
church,  but  not  long  since  my  hospitality  was 
severely  taxed.  We  received  into  our  pew  a  well- 
dressed  lady  and  gentleman.  I  was  so  sickened 
by  the  tobacco-breath  of  the  latter  that  I  was 
obliged  to  turn  my  face  entirely  away  from  him, 
and  so  from  the  minister.  r  Oh,'  thought  I,  f  if  he 
only  knew  how  disgusting  he  is,  would  he  continue 
this?'" 

Unfortunately,  excluding  smokers  from  one's 
pew  does  not  always  exclude  the  tobacco-fumes, 
for  they  bear  a  free  pass  and  travel  where  they 
list.  Nor  is  the  presence  of  the  smoker  always 
necessary,  as  garments  worn  in  his  home  often 
bring  their  accusation  against  him. 

Will  not  those  who  think  they  w  cannot "  break 
from  this  iron  bondage  be  willing  to  hold  up  their 
experience  as  a  warning,  and  thus,  perhaps,  do 
more  to  deter  our  youth  from  this  slavery  than  the 
most  eloquent  anti-tobacco  apostle. 

If  ever  there  was  good  and  sufficient  cause  for 
woman's  righteous  indignation,  is  it  not  just  here? 
In  the  lecture-room,  in  the  concert-hall,  in  the 
opera-house,    in   the  small,  plain   chapel,  in   the 


262  TOBACCO. 

elegant  church,  in  the  grand  cathedral,  she  is  alike 
greeted  with  that  insufferable  tobacco-atmosphere. 
Sickened  thus  for  a  whole  evening  in  some  secular 
or  sacred  assembly,  she  is  glad  at  last  to  hasten 
out  as  fast  as  the  odor-pervaded  crowd  will  allow. 
But  even  on  the  street  it  confronts  her,  it  sur- 
rounds her,  it  pursues  her. 

One  may  well  be  alarmed,  not  merely  at  our 
social  and  aesthetic  prospects,  but  for  our  religion, 
nay,  for  our  very  civilization. 

Think,  dear  friends,  what  we  have  come  to ! 

Tobacco-Christians  at  a  prayer-meeting  talking 
about  self-sacrifice  and  entire  consecration  ! 

Ministers  of  the  pure  Gospel  spitting  tobacco- 
juice  under  the  pulpit,  and  then  dispensing  the 
Word  of  Life  ! 

Delicate,  refined,  yea,  Christian  physicians, 
skilful,  genial,  tender-hearted,  yet  persistent 
transgressors  against  common  courtesy,  —  know- 
ing that  to  sensitive  patients  this  tobacco-odor  is 
highly  offensive,  yet  clinging  to  their  idol ! 

One  may  talk  about  his  choice,  delicately- 
perfumed  cigars,  but  to  many  the  smoke,  how- 
ever disguised,  is  poison.  Besides,  staleness 
inevitably  follows  hard  after  freshness,  and  stale 
tobacco —  what  words  can  describe  it? 

Oh,  if  gentlemen,  whether  saints  or  sinners, — 
if  gentlemen  only  knew,  would  they  not  forbear, 
though  it  should  be  cutting  off  the  right  hand,  or 
plucking  out  the  right  eye? 


APPENDIX.  263 


TYRANNY    SUPERIOR   TO   THE    RUSSIAN. 

As  an  instance  of  the  tyranny  of  the  despot, 
may  be  related  the  case  of  the  Russian  envoy, 
after  a  court  dinner  given  in  Bulgaria  in  the  latter 
part  of  1884,  by  Prince  Alexander.  The  rest  of 
the  company  having  withdrawn,  the  envoy  lin- 
gered in  the  dining-room  to  enjoy  his  cigarette, 
while  chatting  with  a  Russian  staff-officer  who 
was  in  the  Bulgarian  service.  The  court  chamber- 
lain courteously  took  the  officer  aside,  and  deli- 
cately reminded  him  that  there  was  a  smoking 
apartment,  and  that  to  smoke  in  the  dining-room 
was  contrary  to  etiquette.  When  the  officer  made 
this  known  to  the  envoy,  he  instantly  left  the 
palace  in  high  dudgeon.  The  next  morning,  the 
prince  learning  what  had  happened,  hastened  to 
the  envoy  to  express  his  regret,  and  forthwith  dis- 
missed the  chamberlain.    Verily,  tobacco  is  king. 

The  narrator  of  this  event  remarks  :  "  I  have 
heard  of  various  immunities  attached  to  the  post  of 
envoy,  but  I  never  heard  that  they  were  exempt 
from  the  rules  of  common  politeness."  If  he  had 
paused  to  think,  he  would  have  remembered  that 
tobacco  tramples  on  all  such  rules  without  let  or 
hindrance. 

AN   ENCOURAGING   TOKEN. 

The  following  appeal  from  the  New  Orleans 
Picayune  is  an  encouraging  token  :  — 

"  If  New  Orleans  proposes  properly  to  care  for 


264  TOBACCO. 

and  treat  the  thousands  of  visitors  now  here  at  the 
Exposition  or  soon  to  come,  it  must  abolish,  at 
least  for  the  period  of  the  great  World's  Fair,  an 
abuse  which  has  grown  unbearable  here  during  the 
past  few  years  —  the  smoking  cars.  In  the  name 
of  visiting  thousands,  in  the  name  of  health,  of 
common  politeness  and  common  decency,  we  ask 
for  a  suspension  of  smoking  in  the  street  cars  of 
this  city,  at  least  during  the  Exposition,  and  we 
confidently  ask  the  support  of  the  ladies  and  gen- 
tlemen of  New  Orleans  in  this  much-needed 
reform." 

FROM    DR.    W.    WALLACE    XIMS,    OF    SYRACUSE. 

"  To  say  nothing  of  the  scent  of  tobacco,  so 
offensive  to  many,  the  habit  of  using  it  de- 
praves the  appetite,  impairs  the  digestion,  and 
tends  to  produce  emaciation.  Tobacco  is  a  pow- 
erful sedative  and  acts  directly  on  the  nerves, 
prostrating  the  nervous  system  and  laying  the 
foundation  for  a  long  train  of  difficulties.  And 
through  the  nerves  it  affects  the  heart  and  the  cir- 
culation. 

"For  these  and  other  reasons  I  consider  the 
tobacco-habit  one  of  the  very  worst,  next,  indeed, 
to  the  drinking-habit,  to  which  it  often  leads." 

SMOKING    IX   HIGH   PLACES. 

An  Episcopal  clergyman,  who  suffered  from  ill- 
health,  was  induced  by  the  urgent  advice  of  his 
physician  to  give  up  smoking.     Happening  some 


A£I>EtfDIX.  265 

days  after  to  call  upon  the  bishop  of  his  diocese, — 
not  Bishop  Huntington,  you  may  be  sure, — he 
was  invited  to  take  a  cigar.  He  declined  on  the 
ground  that  his  physician  had  forbidden  tobacco. 
"Oh,  come  in  and  have  a  good  smoke  with  me," 
replied  the  bishop,  "  there  are  plenty  of  physicians 
who  approve  of  smoking." 

TOB  ACCO-MANNEKS . 

A  gentleman,  who  with  several  ladies  was  wait- 
ing his  turn  at  a  money-order  office,  ventured  to 
suggest  to  one  in  the  act  of  smoking,  who  was  also 
waiting,  that  tobacco-fumes  were  unpleasant  for 
the  ladies.  "  This  is  a  free  country,"  was  his  re- 
ply. To  some  other  remark  on  the  subject  from 
the  gentleman,  he  made  answer:  "If  you  don't 
like  tobacco-smoke,  you  can  stick  your  head  the 
other  way  !  " 

"I  have  reason  to  think,"  writes  one,  "that  a 
great  many  persons  who  smoke  choice  brands,  and 
who  are  told  by  ladies  that  the  fragrance  is  agreea- 
ble to  them,  fail  to  know  that  old  tobacco-smoke  is 
everywhere  and  always  a  nuisance." 

Says  Dr.  Drysdale  :  "  The  use  of  tobacco  turns 
the  smoking  rooms  of  most  clubs  into  dens,  which 
remind  the  non-smoker  of  the  lairs  of  wild  animals, 
so  foul  and  pestiferous  are  they." 


266  TOBACCO. 


ADDITIONAL    MEDICAL    TESTIMONY. 

A  prominent  dentist  recently  said  that  the  use 
of  tobacco  gave  his  profession  more  than  half  of 
their  business. 

Dr.  Zulinski  has  published,  in  a  Warsaw  medi- 
cal journal,  a  paper  giving  the  results  of  the  inves- 
tigations of  years  upon  the  effect  of  tobacco  smoke 
in  the  case  of  men  and  animals.  He  declares  it  to 
be,  even  in  small  doses,  a  distinct  poison.  He 
finds  such  smoke,  over  and  above  its  nicotine,  to 
have  a  second  toxical  principle  called  colidine, 
with  also  oxide  of  carbon,  and  hydrocyanic  acid. 

Dr.  Maxon,  of  Syracuse,  known  for  his  emphatic 
opposition  to  tobacco  in  every  form,  writes : 
rr  Whether  operating  through  the  nervous  sys- 
tem, or  by  entering  the  circulation,  tobacco  di- 
rectly diminishes  vitality.  And  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  the  physical  prostration  it  pro- 
duces may  account  for  the  fact  that  nearly  every 
drunkard  first  used  tobacco."  Dr.  Maxon  also 
states  that  delirium  tremens  sometimes  results 
from  its  use,  the  cases  of  two  clergymen  thus 
affected  having  fallen  under  his  observation. 

Dr.  O.  S.  Sanders,  an  eminent  Boston  physi- 
cian:  ffI  am  fully  convinced,  from  clinical  obser- 
vation of  forty  years'  practice,  that  tobacco  pro- 
duces blood-poison,  and  that  its  effect  on  the 
nervous  system  is  appalling. 

"Its  pathological  action  is  through  the  spinal 
cord  and  pneumogastric  nerve,  affecting  the  stom- 


APPENDIX.  267 

ach  and  lungs,  and  relaxing  and  paralyzing  the 
muscular  system. 

"Its  toxical  effect  is  to  bring  on  nausea,  ver- 
tigo, and  an  enfeebling  action  of  the  heart. 

K  The  constant  use  of  tobacco,  either  in  smoking 
or  chewing,  predisposes  one  to  epilepsy,  and  to 
symptoms  resembling  cholera  morbus.  It  weak- 
ens the  memory  and  sours  the  disposition.  It 
acts  upon  the  liver,  making  one  hypochondriac, 
peevish,  stupid,  and  morose,  and  producing  op- 
pressive apprehensiveness,  restlessness,  and  melan- 
choly. 

"It  not  only  vitiates  the  appetite  for  proper 
food,  but  impairs  nutrition,  and  sooner  or  later 
engenders  a  desire  for  intoxicating  stimulants. 
It  cannot  be  otherwise  expected,  for  tobacco  not 
only  causes  general  apathy  of  nerve-force,  but 
produces  great  weariness,  languor,  and  general 
debility ;  hence,  to  meet  such  an  extremity,  the 
system  naturally  craves  something  more  exciting 
than  air,  water,  and  wholesome  food.  While  not 
all  tobacco-consumers  are  drunkards,  there  are 
very  few  drunkards  who  do  not  use  tobacco  in 
some  form. 

"  One  argument  is  offered  as  an  apology  for  the 
tobacco-habit,  and  that  is  that  it  prevents  many 
types  of  disease.  This  is  an  error.  Tobacco  is 
not  an  antidote;  on  the  other  hand,  when  a  man, 
whose  blood  has  been  poisoned,  and  whose  nerve- 
fluid  has  become  abnormal  from  the  use  of  tobacco, 
is  attacked  by  any  malignant  disease,  his  chances 
for  recovery  are  lessened  fifty  per  cent." 


268  TOBACCO. 

Dr.  Kostral,  in  the  Austrian  state  tobacco  manu- 
factory, sa}'s  that  the  workers  are  subjected  to 
many  diseases,  especially  in  the  case  of  young 
women  and  boys. 

From  Prof.  Henry  Mills,  of  Fairview  Electro- 
pathic  Institute,  Binghamton,  N.  Y.  :  — 

"  For  about  twenty  years  I  was  in  the  habit  of 
using  tobacco  in  all  its  forms.  My  whole  system 
became  deranged,  and  there  was  every  prospect  of 
my  being  an  invalid  for  life.  I  resolved  on  eman- 
cipation, and  quit  its  use  at  once  and  forever.  My 
health  was  restored,  and  for  forty  years  I  have 
hardly  known  a  week's  sickness." 

In  the  preceding  pages,  extracts  were  given  from 
the  Reports  of  Drs.  Gorgas  and  Gihon  of  the 
United  States  Navy.  The  following  passages  are 
from  the  sanitary  column  in  n  The  Independent " 
for  Jan.  22,  1885:  — 

"Surgeon  A.  C.  Gorgas,  Medical  Inspector, 
United  States  Navy,  in  his  article  on  the  f  Effects 
of  Tobacco  on  Youth,'  gives  us,  in  full,  the  facts 
which  led  to  its  prohibition  from  cadets  in  the 
Naval  Academy  at  Annapolis,  as  it  has  since  also 
been  prohibited  at  the  Military  Academy  at  AVest 
Point.  When  the  order  went  into  effect  at  Anna- 
polis, the  class  of  diseases,  such  as  headache,  dis- 
ordered digestion,  malaise,  diminished  at  least 
one  half  in  the  next  three  months.  The  sympa- 
thies of  the  professors  were  in  favor  of  its  use, 
and  Dr.  Gorgas  is  himself  a  smoker,  yet  he  bears 


APPENDIX.  269 

testimony  that  the  rescinding  of  the  order,  and 
the  return  to  smoking  for  a  year,  had  such  unmis- 
takable results,  as  that  all  the  officers  who  had 
favored  the  plan  of  unrestricted  permission  to 
smoke  confessed  that  the  experiment  had  proved 
a  failure. 

"  The  use  of  tobacco  by  youths  can  never  be 
regarded  as  moderate.  It  is  generally  excessive 
in  the  literal  sense  of  the  term  ;  but  its  effects, 
even  when  but  little  indulged  in,  are  those  which 
characterize  excess  in  adults.  The  depressing 
effect  of  tobacco  upon  growth,  by  diminishing  the 
forces  concerned  in  tissue  change,  its  effect  upon 
the  heart  and  pulsation,  the  disturbance  of  muscu- 
lar co-ordinative  power,  of  ability  to  concentrate 
the  mind  upon  study,  the  dyspeptic  troubles,  im- 
pairment of  vision,  headaches,  and  the  retardation 
of  sexual  development  and  disturbance  of  that 
function,  are  conceded  by  most  observers  and 
clearly  demonstrated  by  many.  ...  At  this  acad- 
emy instances  of  almost  all  the  evil  effects  of 
tobacco  have  been  brought  to  the  notice  of  the 
medical  officers.  Many  of  the  cases  of  irritable 
heart  supposed  to  be  induced  by  gymnastic  exer- 
cises I  believe  to  be  caused  by  tobacco.  ...  If, 
to-day,  a  census  could  be  taken  of  all  the  boys 
who  smoke,  it  would  surprise,  and  ought  to  dis- 
tress, our  American  people.  For  it  is  one  of  the 
facts  that  has  to  do  with  social,  moral,  and  politi- 
cal degeneracy. 

"We  believe  that  all  licensed  tobacco  sellers 


270  TOBACCO. 

should  enter  into  obligations  not  to  sell  to  those 
below  a  certain  age,  and  that  any  person  should 
have  a  right  to  enter  complaint  against  children 
found  to  be  indulging  this  habit.  Besides  the 
direct  effect  on  impaired  physical  vigor,  there  is 
another  view  not  enough  considered, — the  power 
of  choice,  self-control,  self-restraint.  Will-power, 
in  its  best  sense,  is  the  greatest  power  beneath  the 
sky.  The  freedom  of  the  will  is  far  more  than  a 
theological  doctrine.  It  is  the  reserve  hope  of 
manhood,  and  not  only  decides  individual  charac- 
ter and  destiny,  but  social  and  national  destiny 
also.  Our  most  outspoken  quarrel  with  tobacco, 
as  with  other  stimulants  and  narcotics,  is  this  :  that, 
indulged  in  so  early,  they  so  affect  the  brain  and 
nervous  system  that  habits  become  dominant  and 
uncontrollable,  which  lead  to  a  general  loss  of  self- 
restraint.  \Ye  hear  much  discussion  as  to  whether 
intemperance  is  a  disease.  The  real  disease  that 
is  gaining  ground  is  debility  in  self-restraint ;  it 
is  producing  that  debility  among  the  young.  To- 
bacco is  the  most  threatening  power.  It  leads 
often  to  intemperance,  to  a  general  yielding  of 
self-control,  and  so  to  many  an  evil  greater  than 
that  of  physical  infirmity." 

The  following  is  from  the  widely  known  Nathan 
Allen,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  of  Lowell,  Mass.,  who  has 
written  ably  on  Hereditary  Diseases,  Laws  of 
Inheritance,  and  on  various  subjects  connected 
with  physiology :  — 


APPENDIX.  271 

"I  am  glad  to  learn  that  you  are  soon  to  pub- 
lish a  work  on  Tobacco.  Having  made,  for  many 
years  a  specialty  of  the  study  of  the  laws  of  health 
and  disease,  I  consider  this  one  of  the  greatest 
evils  of  the  present  day.  Language  cannot  de- 
scribe the  terrible  effects  which  tobacco  produces 
upon  both  body  and  mind.  It  perverts  the  taste, 
impairs  mental  capacity,  corrupts  the  moral  sense, 
and  stimulates  the  animal  nature. 

M  But  its  pernicious  effects  are  not  confined  to 
the  present  generation,  nor  to  this  life.  Its  dread- 
ful evils,  through  the  laws  of  inheritance,  extend 
to  offspring,  even  to  the  second,  third,  and  fourth 
generation. 

"In  view  of  such  facts,  that  smoking  should 
increase,  especially  among  young  men,  is  alarm- 
ing, yes,  shocking !  I  pray  that  your  book  may 
prove  a  powerful  auxiliary  in  this  much-needed 
reform." 

From  Pres.  Edward  Hitchcock,  D.D.,  L.L.D., 
for  many  years  the  honored  president  of  Amherst 
College : 

"  I  believe  that  tobacco  is  a  cursed  evil  to  our 
boys  and  young  men,  seriously  damaging  them 
morally  and  physically.  It  is  a  bewitching  evil. 
It  has  a  soothing  and  quieting  effect  on  the  nerve 
centres,  and  hence  to  the  user  seems  to  do  no 


272  TOBACCO. 

harm.  And  the  fact  that  its  use  follows  the  law 
of  increase,  makes  it  much  more  damaging  than  if 
the  law  were  otherwise.  Besides,  it  retards  the 
change  of  tissue,  so  necessary  to  young  people. 
Its  check  on  virility  has  not  been  made  sufficiently 
plain." 


TOBACCO    AND    CAXCER. 

The  following  is  from  the  British  Medical  Jour- 
nal:— 

n  As  to  whether  smoking  may  be  the  immediate 
cause  of  cancer,  surgeons  are  not  agreed  ;  but  there 
is  a  condition  of  the  tongue  which  is,  in  many 
cases,  the  precursor  of  epithelioma,  namely,  f  leu- 
coplakia ; '  and  this  disease  is  more  generally  con- 
sidered to  be  caused  by  smoking.  Mr.  Barker, 
writing  on  this  inflammation,  points  out  that  among 
seventy-five  recorded  cases,  seventy-one  smoked, 
and  only  four  were  non-smokers.  Buzenet  used 
the  term  'plaques  des  furaeurs  '  for  this  disease,  be- 
cause he  was  convinced  that  smoking  so  often  gave 
rise  to  it.  Mr.  Hulke  has  more  than  once  shown 
that  f  leucoplakia '  ma}*  be  the  starting-point  of  epi- 
thelioma ;  and  out  of  the  above-mentioned  seventy- 
live  cases,  forty-four  developed  epithelioma,  and 
in  one  only  was  there  a  family  history  of  cancer." 

THE    VICTOR    VANQUISHED. 

Since  the  above  pages  were  in  type,  Ulysses  S. 
Grant,  our  greatest  American  general,  whose  deeds 


APPENDIX.  273 

have  won  the  admiration  of  both  continents,  has 
passed  from  earth.  His  marvellous  physical  en- 
durance, in  spite  of  his  ceaseless  smoking,  has 
been  a  standing  argument  with  tobacco-votaries  as 
to  the  innocence  of  the  weed.  But  even  the 
indomitable  soldier  could  not  forever  "fight  it  out 
on  this  line." 

It  was  early  admitted  by  his  physicians  that 
General  Grant's  disease  was  epithelioma,  or  epi- 
thelial cancer.  In  his  March  statement  to  a  Tri- 
bune reporter,  Dr.  Douglas  remarks :  K  Smoking 
was  the  exciting  cause  of  this  cancer,  though 
there  have  been  many  contributing  causes."  Since 
Grant's  death,  Dr.  Shrady,  in  his  closing  summary, 
says :  M  It  is  quite  probable  that  the  irritation  of 
smoking  was  the  actual  cause  of  the  cancer ;  or  at 
least  it  is  fair  to  presume  that  he  would  not  have 
had  the  disease  if  his  habit  had  not  been  carried 
to  excess." 

The  sorrowful  end  so  long  looked  for  has  finally 
come.  The  grand  old  hero,  to  whom  our  country 
was  immeasurably  indebted,  and  whom  she  has 
delighted  to  honor, — whom  not  tens  nor  hundreds 
of  thousands  in  hostile  array  could  intimidate,  — 
this  dauntless  soldier  surrenders  at  last  to  a  foe 
which,  approaching  him  in  the  guise  of  a  friend, 
he  cherished,  alas,  with  his  own  hand.  And  the 
whole  nation  is  clad  in  mourning. 


274  TOBACCO. 

A  few  confirmatory  testimonies  are  given  as  to 
the  relation  between  cancer  and  tobacco. 

Professor  Bouisson,  of  France  :  "Tobacco,  which 
answers  no  natural  want,  is  the  most  common  cause 
of  cancer  in  the  mouth." 

Dr.  "William  Hardwicke,  coroner  for  Central 
Middlesex,  England :  "  Certain  forms  of  cancer  in 
the  lips  and  tongue  are  clearly  traceable  to  the  use 
of  tobacco." 

Dr.  Charles  E.  Drysdale,  of  London:  "Cancer 
of  the  lip  is  rarely  seen,  except  in  men  who  smoke." 

Professor  Lizars,  of  Edinburgh:  "I  have  had 
under  my  own  treatment  several  cases  of  ulcera- 
tion of  the  lips,  tongue,  and  cheek,  some  of  them 
incurable,  all  of  which  occurred  in  persons  greatly 
addicted  to  smoking." 

Dr.  John  C.  Warren,  the  well-known  Boston 
surgeon :  "  The  irritation  from  a  cigar  or  a  pipe 
frequently  precedes  cancer  of  the  lips." 

The  *  Medical  Times  and  Gazette  "  mentions  a 
hundred  and  twenty  seven  cancers  cut  from  the 
lips,  nearly  all  the  lips  of  smokers. 

Dr.  Brown,  of  Manchester,  England,  "communi- 
cated to  the  Clinical  Society  of  London  a  very 
remarkable  observation  on  an  'ablation,'  almost 
entire,  made  in  two  operations  on  the  tongue, 
affected  by  neoplastic  indurations  succeeding  an 
old  ichthyose  of  the  organ.  The  only  cause  to 
which  it  could  possibly  be  attributed  was  tobacco." 

Eev.  A.  Sims  gives  the  case  of  a  banker  in  Phil- 


APPENDIX.  275 

adelphia  who  was  an  inveterate  smoker.  "The 
roots  of  the  tongue  rotted  and  the  throat  sympa- 
thized until  he  could  not  swallow,  .  .  .  and  death 
from  starvation  and  suffocation  finally  closed  the 
scene." 

Mr.  Fenn,  of  Suffolk :  *  I  have  seen  very  mild 
attacks  of  typhoid  fever  rendered  fatal  from  the 
excessive  use  of  tobacco." 

Professor  Miller,  of  Edinburgh,  surgeon  to  the 
Queen:  "In  plain  language,  tobacco  tends  to 
paralysis." 

Dr.  Solly,  F.R.S. :  "  Smoking  is  one  of  the 
causes  of  paralysis." 

Dr.  Maillot,  Chief  of  the  French  Arnry  Board  of 
Health,  found  among  numerous  cases  of  paralysis, 
many  patients  who  were  immoderate  smokers. 

Dr.  Stephenson  :  "  It  impairs  the  functions  of  the 
brain,  clouds  the  understanding,  and  enfeebles  the 
memory." 

Dr.  L.  G.  Alexander  of  Kentucky,  in  "Good 
Health:  "  "The  rapid  increase  of  nervous  people, 
nerve  pain,  neuralgia,  and  obscure  nervous  disease 
is  seen  by  the  physician  every  day,  and  it  is  my 
belief  that  tobacco,  as  well  as  alcohol  and  opium,  is 
the  most  prominent  cause.  It  is  from  this  class 
that  drunkards  are  mostly  recruited." 

"  Journal  of  Science  :  "  "  The  temporary  stim- 
ulus and  soothing  power  of  tobacco  are  gained 
by  destroying  vital  force.  Nor  is  the  poison  easily 
expelled  from  the  system,   .   .   .  indeed,  nicotine 


27*>  TOBACCO. 

has  been  detected  in  the  tissues  of  the  lungs  and 
liver  after  death." 

The  wonderful  pervasiveness  of  nicotine  is  illus- 
trated by  a  singular  case  related  in  a  recent  journal- 
A  lady  in  one  of  our  western  towns  being  brought 
very  low  from  illness,  her  physician  recommended 
transfusion  of  blood,  which  was  accordingly  taken 
from  the  arm  of  her  son.  The  young  man  was  a 
smoker,  and  soon  after  the  experiment  the  mother 
complained  of  the  taste  of  tobacco  in  her  mouth ! 
The  result,  as  a  wise  man  might  have  foreseen,  was 
unfavorable. 

Dio  Lewis,  in  "Dr.  Holbrook's  Hygiene  of  the 
Brain  and  Nerves  :  "  "  If  a  man  wishes  to  train  for 
a  boat  race,  his  trainer  will  not  let  him  use  tobacco. 
If  he  wishes  to  train  for  a  long  walk,  his  trainer 
will  not  let  him  touch  a  cigar.  If  he  will  train 
himself  to  graduate  from  a  college  with  honor,  he 
must  not  use  tobacco.  It  is  a  powerful  poison 
and  the  brain  cannot  escape  it  if  it  be  used  in  any 
form." 

Dr.  Warren  P.  Lombard,  in  an  article  entitled 
"Some  of  the  influences  which  affect  the  power  of 
voluntary  muscular  contractions,'"  that  appeared  in 
the  "Journal  of  Physiology."  Anions:  the  influ- 
ences  treated  of  is  tobacco.  "  Smoking  was  found 
to  have  a  very  depressing  effect  upon  the  strength 
of  the  voluntary  muscular  contractions.  This  was 
seen  when  a  light  cigar  was  smoked  just  before 
each  test  of  the  strength  during  a  number  of  days, 


APPENDIX.  277 

and  the  amount  of  work  possible  on  these  days 
was  compared  with  that  done  at  the  same  hours 
on  other  days,  when  no  tobacco  was  used.  A 
loss  of  strength  was  likewise  observed  when  a  cigar 
was  smoked  before  one  of  several  observations  of 
a  day.  The  result  was  unexpected  to  the  subject, 
who,  though  aware  of  the  depressing  effects  of 
large  doses  of  tobacco,  thought  he  could  do  better 
mental  work  when  smoking,  and  supposed  that 
moderate  smoking  tended  to  excite  rather  than 
depress  both  mental  and  muscular  activity." 

Rev.  E.  O.  Pigott,  of  England,  one  of  the  Cam- 
bridge University  eight  in  1864  :  "I  am  perfectly 
convinced  that  smoking  greatly  decreases  the  power 
of  endurance  needful  in  sustaining  physical  effort." 

Extracts  from  a  paper  by  Dr.  Jay  W.  Seaver, 
college  physician  and  professor  of  athletics  at 
Yale  :  "  A  record  of  the  users  of  tobacco  has  been 
kept  at  Yale  for  the  past  eight  years,  for  the  main 
purpose  of  determining  the  number  of  men  who 
began  the  habit  while  in  colloge." 

Omitting  certain  statistics,  the  extracts  are  con- 
tinued :  "  If  this  growth  be  expressed  in  the  form 
of  percentage,  it  will  be  seen  that  in  weight  the 
non-users  increased  10.4  per  cent,  more  than  the 
regular  users,  and  6.Q  per  cent,  more  than  the 
occasional  users.  In  the  growth  of  height  the 
non-user  increased  24  per  cent,  more  than  the 
habitual  user.  In  growth  of  chest  girth,  the  non- 
user  has  an  advantage  over  the  regular  user  of  22 


278  TOBACCO. 

per  cent. ,  while  in  capacity  of  lungs  the  growth  is 
in  favor  of  the  non-user  by  77.5  per  cent,  when 
compared  with  the  regular  users,  and  49.5  per 
cent,  when  compared  with  the  irregular  users.  It 
has  long  been  recognized  by  the  ablest  medical 
authorities  that  the  use  of  tobacco  is  injurious  to 
the  respiratory  tract,  but  the  extent  of  its  influence 
in  checking  growth  in  this  and  other  directions 
has,  I  believe,  been  widely  underestimated. " 

Dr.  Seaver  also  finds  the  smokers  inferior  in 
scholarship :  "  Of  those  students  who,  within  a 
given  time,  have  received  junior  appointments 
above  dissertations,  only  five  per  cent,  were 
smokers,  and  very  few  smokers  received  appoint- 
ments of  any  kind." 

The  setting  forth  of  these  facts  has  not  been 
without  results.  Dr.  Seaver  reports  that  seventy 
per  cent,  of  the  senior  class  do  not  smoke,  and  not 
a  single  candidate  for  the  rowing  crew  is  a  smoker. 

Dr.  Bilroth,  of  Vienna,  an  eminent  surgeon : 
'■  The  colossal  increase  of  nerve  and  mind  disease 
in  our  day  is  undoubtedly  the  result,  to  a  great 
extent,  of  the  tobacco  and  alcohol  habit,  and  the 
straining  of  the  nervous  system  caused  by  these 
poisons." 

Dr.  Amos  Twitchell,  of  Keene,  X.H.  :  "It  pro- 
duces its  most  pernicious  effects  by  paralyzing 
the  action  of  the  nerves  of  involuntary  motion. 
Among  the  diseases  it  occasions  are  palsy,  invet- 
erate nervous  headache,  palpitation  of  the  heart, 


APPENDIX.  279 

disease  of  the  liver,  indigestion,  ulceration  of  the 
stomach,  piles,  and  many  others." 

W.  A.  Axon,  in  "Popular  Science  Monthly:" 
"By  causing  irregularity  in  supply  of  blood,  it 
degrades  tissues." 

"  The  Lancet :  "  "  Dr.  Chadnovski  published  in 
the  c  Ruskayer  Meditsina '  an  account  of  a  series  of 
observations  made  on  twelve  soldiers  in  a  military 
hospital,  who  were  perfectly  well  with  the  excep- 
tion of  slight  injuries.  Six  of  the  men  were  smok- 
ers and  six  non-smokers.  In  the  former  the  time 
required  for  digestion  averaged  seven  hours,  while 
in  the  case  of  non-smokers  the  mean  period  of  di- 
gestion was  only  six  hours." 

Dr.  Copeland,  F.R.S.  :  "  Smoking  weakens  the 
digestion  and  assimilating  functions,  impairs  the 
due  elaboration  of  the  chyle  of  the  blood,  and  pre- 
vents a  healthy  nutrition  of  the  several  strictures 
of  the  body." 

Dr.  Mussey  :  "  Physicians  meet  with  thousands 
of  cases  of  dyspepsia  connected  with  the  use  of 
tobacco." 

Dr.  McAllister,  of  Utica  :  "  The  habitual  smoker 
weakens  the  organs  of  digestion  and  assimilation, 
and  at  length  plunges  into  all  the  accumulated 
horrors  of  dyspepsia." 

Dr.  Darwin,  of  England:  "Tobacco  produces 
diseases  of  the  salivary  glands  and  the  pancreas, 
and  injures  the  power  of  digestion." 

Dr.  Rush,  of  Philadelphia  :  "It  impairs  appetite, 


280  TOBACCO. 

produces  dyspepsia,  tremors,  vertigo,   headache, 
and  epilepsy." 

C.  B.  Pun-is,  Freedman's  Hospital,  Washing- 
ton, D.C.  :  "Tobacco  prevents  in  a  great  measure 
assimilation  of  food,  and  produces  a  variety  of  dis- 
orders of  a  permanent  character.  Smoking  causes 
debility  of  the  stomach,  irregularity  of  the  heart, 
bronchial  irritation  and  partial  or  entire  paralysis 
of  the  optic  nerve." 

Prof.  Edward  Hitchcock,  of  Amherst  College  : 
f'  The  use  of  tobacco  may  seem  to  soothe  the  feel- 
ings and  quicken  the  operations  of  the  mind ;  but 
to  what  purpose  is  it  that  the  machine  is  furiously 
running  and  buzzing  after  the  balance  wheel  is 
taken  off?" 

Dr.  Woodward,  of  the  Worcester  Lunatic  Asy- 
lum :  "  Tobacco  is  very  deleterious  to  the  nervous 
system,  producing  tremors,  vertigo,  faintness,  pal- 
pitation of  the  heart,  and  other  serious  diseases." 

D.  R.  Hagner,  M.D.,  of  Washington,  D.C: 
"Many  cases  have  fallen  under  my  notice  of  mi- 
nors suffering  from  nervous  diseases  and  general 
impairment  of  the  powers  of  mind  and  body  from 
the  use  of  tobacco,  and  more  especially  from  cigar- 
ette smoking." 

Says  a  recent  writer  :  "  It  has  been  proved  that 
lunacy  has  kept  pace  in  France  with  the  increase 
of  the  revenue  from  tobacco." 

Dr.  Hassock :  "  Tobacco    is    one    cause    of  the 


APPENDIX.  281 

alarming  frequency  of  apoplexy,  palsy,  epilepsy, 
and  other  diseases  of  the  nervous  system." 

"  Phrenological  Journal :  "  "  Half  the  old  tobacco 
users  are  in  a  state  of  semi-imbecility.  Their 
memory  is  leaky,  moral  sense  blunted,  general 
disposition  impaired,  and  tone  of  both  body  and 
mind  let  down." 

Hon.  Charles  Steele,  of  Illinois  :  "When  given  to 
the  excessive  use  of  tobacco,  I  was  prostrated  by 
a  well  denned  attack  of  delirium  tremens,  and 
from  that  time  found  it  necessary  to  abstain  entire- 
ly from  its  use." 

Dr.  Boerhave,  of  Germany:  "Since  the  use  of 
tobacco  has  become  so  general,  the  number  of 
hypochondriacal  and  consumptive  complaints  has 
increased." 

Liebig,  the  celebrated  German  chemist :  "  Smok- 
ing is  prejudicial  to  health,  as  much  gaseous  car- 
bon is  injuriously  inhaled  that  robs  the  system  of 
its  oxygen." 

Dr.  L.  E.  Keeley,  Keeley  Institute,  Dwight, 
Illinois:  "Tobacco  enfeebles  digestion,  produces 
emaciation  and  general  debility.  It  lays  the 
foundation  of  nearly  every  nervous  disorder  now 
common  to  the  people  of  America.  It  produces 
amaurosis  and  color-blindness,  insanity,  epilepsy, 
bronchitis,  rheumatism  and  asthma,  dyspepsia  and 
catarrh,  f tobacco-heart '  and  cancer  of  the  stom- 
ach." 

Dr.  Stille's  "  Therapeutics  :  "  "  It  impairs  diges- 


282  TOBACCO. 

tion,  induces  constipation,  irritates  the  throat,  ren- 
dering it  habitually  congested,  induces  sense  of 
nervousness,  epigastric  sinking,  or  tension,  palpi- 
tation, hypochondriasis,  and  neuralgia." 

M.  Mouzon,  director  of  the  Professional  School 
at  Bruges  :  R  Without  mentioning  cases  of  epilep- 
sy and  aggravated  nervous  maladies,  we  have 
three  young  men  who  have  been  almost  entirely 
blind  since  the  age  of  twelve,  from  smoking." 

Dr.  C.  S.  JeafFreson,  senior  surgeon  at  the  Eye 
Hospital,  Newcastle,  England:  "Tobacco  am- 
blyopia—  incipient  amaurosis  —  is  a  very  common 
malady  in  this  district ;  there  are  few  weeks  that 
I  do  not  see  one  or  two  such  cases." 

Dr.  Chisholm,  a  distinguished  oculist  of  Balti- 
more, on  examining  the  eyes  of  a  woman  was 
puzzled.  "If  you  were  a  man,"  he  told  her,  "there 
would  be  just  one  thing  that  I  should  say."  "  What 
would  that  be?"  "That  you  had  tobacco  eyes." 
"Then  that  is  just  it."  It  seems  that  her  husband 
had  allowed  her  to  smoke  in  his  company,  and  this 
was  the  result  of  the  privilege. 

Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg,  Medical  and  Surgical  Sani- 
tarium, Battle  Creek,  Mich.  :  "From  the  use  of 
tobacco  comes  sudden  or  gradual  impairment  of 
vision ;  a  blurring  of  objects ;  ability  to  see  bet- 
ter in  twilight  than  in  full  daylight ;  difficulty  in 
distinguishing  colors ;  and  after  a  time  partial  or 
complete  and  permanent  loss  of  vision." 

In  a  publication  by  the  "  Societe  contre  L'Abus 


APPENDIX.  283 

du  Tabac,"  Dr.  Galezowski  gives  the  history  of 
an  immoderate  smoker  who  lost  the  power  of  dis- 
tinguishing colors,  regained  perfect  sight  on  aban- 
doning tobacco,  had  a  relapse  on  frequenting  a 
club  where  was  continuous  smoking,  and  was  en- 
tirely cured  by  ceasing  to  go  there. 

Dr.  Chalmers  :  "  Smoking  leads  to  drinking  and 
drinking  leads  to  the  devil." 

Dr.  Pennoyer,  of  the  Pennoyer  Sanitarium, 
Kenosha,  Wis.  :  "The  tobacco  habit  is  one  of  the 
things  I  most  inveigh  against,  believing  it  to  be 
the  most  important  factor  in  inducing  the  liquor 
habit." 

Lord  Palmerston  at  an  agricultural  meeting  at 
Romsey  :  "  The  first  step  in  the  downward  course 
of  the  laborer  begins  at  the  tobacco  shop,  for  thence 
he  goes  to  the  alehouse." 

Dr.  Brochard,  on  a  visit  to  a  French  nursery 
where  the  mothers  employed  in  the  tobacco  manu- 
factory leave  their  little  ones  during  working  hours, 
inquired  of  the  directress  whether  she  had  noticed 
any  difference  between  these  and  other  children. 
"They  are  easy  to  recognize,"  she  replied.  "They 
are  weakly,  emaciated,  undersized,  with  faces  old 
looking  and  wrinkled." 

Mr.  J.  H.  Hoose,  State  Normal  and  Training 
School,  Cortland,  X.Y.  :  "Suppose  the  law  places 
the  boy  under  the  ban  for  smoking,  who  will  com- 
plain of  him  ?  A  smoker !  Led  to  the  office  by 
an  officer,  smoking  !     Fined  by  a  justice,  smoking  ! 


284  TOBACCO. 

The  pulpit,  in  many  cases,  f  smells  to  heaven'  of 
smoke  !     The  problem  is  one  of  gravity." 

Principal  Hill,  Cook  Academy,  Havana,  N.Y.  : 
"  The  harmful  effects  of  tobacco  upon  boys  cannot 
be  overstated.  I  have  personally  known  many 
students  whose  capacity  for  intellectual  work  has 
been  well-nigh  destroyed,  and  who  have  been 
brought  to  the  verge  of  idiocy  by  tobacco.  I 
am  amazed  that  the  church,  that  society,  that 
parents  treat  with  indifference  this  menace  to  all 
that  makes  life  worth  living.  I  do  not  hesitate  to 
say  that  I  believe  the  f  tobacco  curse  '  is  as  threat- 
ening as  the  liquor  traffic." 

Principal  Sheldon,  Normal  and  Training  School, 
Oswego,  N.Y.  :  "The  tendency  of  the  tobacco 
habit  is  to  undermine  both  the  health  and  morals 
of  the  young.  It  is  the  direct  road  to  intemper- 
ance in  the  drinking  habit." 

D.  Webster  Prentiss,  M.D.,  president  of  the 
Medical  Society  of  the  District  of  Columbia:  "I 
cannot  express  too  strongly  from  a  medical  point 
of  view  my  opinion  of  the  grave  deleterious  effects 
of  the  use  of  tobacco,  especially  of  cigarette  smok- 
ing, by  young  persons." 

The  only  son  of  the  proprietor  of  a  French 
restaurant  in  New  York  recently  died  from  ex- 
cessive cigarette  smoking.  He  began  to  smoke 
when  six  years  of  age  and  the  habit  grew  so  upon 
him  that,  his  father  says,  with  all  his  efforts  to 
break  from  it,  "In  three  years  I  never  saw  him 


APPENDIX.  285 

night  time  or  day  time  without  a  cigar  in  his 
mouth." 

President  Barnard,  Columbia  College,  New 
York:  "The  free  use  of  tobacco  in  all  its  forms, 
but  especially  in  the  form  of  cigarettes,  is  doing 
much  to  undermine  the  health  of  the  rising  genera- 
tion, and  is  nearly  as  noxious  as  the  giant  evil, 
drunkenness." 

It  has  been  shown  that  throughout  the  United 
States  during  the  past  year,  1891,  there  have  been 
about  one  hundred  deaths  of  young  men,  mostly 
under  sixteen  years  of  age,  from  the  effects  of 
cigarettes.  In  some  cases  there  has  been  an  anal- 
ysis  of  the  stomach,  and  in  most  instances  there 
have  been  found  phosphorus  and  arsenic,  which 
are  largely  used  in  the  manufacture  of  cigarette 
paper.  About  a  hundred  have  also  been  con- 
signed to  insane  asylums  for  the  same  cause. 

Henry  C.  Spencer,  principal  Spencerian  Busi- 
ness College,  and  Sara  A.  Spencer,  vice  principal : 
"  In  our  thirty  years'  experience  in  teaching  more 
than  fifty  thousand  young  people,  we  have  found 
the  effects  of  this  narcotic  to  be  precocious  devel- 
opment of  evil  passions,  premature  age,  shattered 
nerves,  mental  weakness,  stunted  growth,  and 
general  physical  and  moral  degeneracy,  and  there- 
fore now  decline  to  receive  into  this  institution  any 
who  use  this  noxious  weed." 

Rev.  A.  C.  Amaron,  president  of  the  French 
Protestant  College  in  Springfield,  Mass.,  tells  me 


286  TOBACCO. 

that  the  students  are  forbidden  the  use  of  tobacco 
in  any  form. 

Bishop  of  Kansas  :  "  The  enormous  consumption 
of  tobacco  is  one  of  the  crying  evils  of  the  day. 
It  is  destroying  the  health  of  our  youth,  and  vitiat- 
ing the  powers  of  early  manhood." 

Bishop  Grafton,  of  Fond  du  Lac,  Wisconsin  :  "I 
have  known  the  influence  of  many  a  clergyman  in- 
jured by  the  tobacco  habit,  and  sometimes  their 
health  seriously  impaired,  even  their  lives  lost  by 
it.  The  late  Bishop  Whittingham,  of  Maryland, 
spoke  most  strongly  against  it.  The  Methodist 
ministers  have  given  a  noble  example  of  discipline 
to  churchmen  in  making,  since  1850,  total  absti- 
nence and  the  disuse  of  tobacco  a  condition  of  en- 
trance into  their  ministry.  It  would  be  well  if  we 
did  the  same." 

Bishop  Gillespie,  of  Western  Michigan:  "I 
abominate  the  filthy  weed.  It  is  especially  a  grief 
to  me  that  the  clergy  will  use  it.  I  think  our 
theological  seminaries  should  expel  any  student 
who  perseveres  in  chewing  or  smoking.  I  know 
clergymen  whose  usefulness  has  been  as  thoroughly 
ruined  by  tobacco  as  it  could  have  been  by  drink." 

Bishop  De Wolfe  Howe,  of  Central  Pennsylva- 
nia, the  oldest  bishop  in  the  American  Church  : 
"  Tobacco  is  not  a  specific  —  as  far  as  I  am  in- 
formed —  for  any  human  ailment ;  it  is  revolting 
to  the  natural  taste ;  it  occasions  the  loss  of  much 
precious  time ;  it  unfits  one  for  attendance  on  the 


APPENDIX.  287 

sick ;  it  impairs  the  health  which  it  does  not  de- 
troy  ;  its  use  in  any  form  is  uncleanly  ;  it  demands 
of  its  devotees  a  constant  expenditure  of  money ; 
its  culture  occupies  rich  arable  lands  which  other- 
wise would  yield  wholesome  fruits  for  man  and 
beast.  I  have  been  grieved  by  the  extent  to  which 
the  vile  habit  of  smoking  and  chewing  prevails 
among  the  clergy." 

W.  H.  Wakeham,  field  secretary  of  the  Inter- 
national Health  and  Temperance  Association :  "  I 
believe  tobacco  is  doing  more  harm  physically  and 
morally  than  alcohol." 

"  New  York  Medical  Journal,"  November,  1888  : 
"When  Europeans  first  visited  New  Zealand,  they 
found  in  the  native  Maoris  the  most  finely  devel- 
oped and  powerful  men  of  any  of  the  tribes  inhab- 
iting the  islands  of  the  Pacific.  Since  the  intro- 
duction of  tobacco,  for  which  the  Maoris  developed 
a  passionate  liking,  they  have  from  this  cause 
alone,  it  is  said,  become  decimated  in  numbers, 
and  at  the  same  time  reduced  in  stature  and  in 
physical  well  being,  so  as  to  be  an  almost  inferior 
type  of  men." 

Sir  Benjamin  Brodie  :  "If  a  generation  should 
arise  when  both  men  and  women  should  take  to 
using  tobacco,  the  deterioration  of  the  next  genera- 
tion would  be  insured." 

Again  he  says  :  "  I  cannot  entertain  a  doubt  that 
the  value  of  life  in  inveterate  smokers  is  consider- 
ably below  the  average.     Nor  is  this  opinion  con- 


288  TOBACCO. 

tradicted  by  the  fact  that  there  are  individuals 
who,  in  spite  of  the  inhalation  of  tobacco  smoke, 
live  to  be  old,  and  without  any  material  derange- 
ment of  the  health ;  analogous  exceptions  to  the 
general  rule  being  met  with  in  the  case  of  those 
who  have  indulged  freely  in  the  use  of  liquors. 
Nicotine  occasions  death  by  destroying  the  func- 
tions of  the  brain." 

Dr.  Curvengen  cited  the  case  of  a  gentleman  to 
whom  he  was  obliged  to  administer  strong  coffee 
to  arouse  him  from  the  nervous  depression  occa- 
sioned by  long  smoking. 

Dr.  Laycock,  Medical  Professor  in  Edinburgh 
University :  "  I  have  not  known  any  good  from 
tobacco  that  might  not  have  been  obtained  from 
less  objectionable  means." 

Abernethy,  the  great  English  surgeon :  "  To- 
bacco stupifies  the  moral  sense." 

A  gentleman,  it  is  said,  once  asked  Abernethy 
if  he  thought  the  moderate  use  of  snuff  would 
injure  the  brain.  "Xo,  sir,"  was  Abernethy's 
prompt  reply,  "for  no  man  with  a  single  ounce 
of  brains  would  think  of  taking  snuff." 

Horace  Mann :  w  Tobacco  should  not  only  be 
denounced,  but  the  student  who  uses  it  should  be 
expelled  on  the  ground  that  the  practice  is  unfit 
for  a  scholar  and  a  gentleman." 

"The  Christian:"  "The  smoker  more  than  any 
one  else  is  a  selfish  man.     Xo  matter  how  poor 


APPENDIX.  289 

he  is,  no  matter  how  hard  the  times  are,  he  must 
have  his  cigar. 

Timothy  Titcomb :  "  I  have  never  seen  a  slave 
of  tobacco  who  did  not  regret  his  bondage ;  yet, 
against  all  advice,  against  nausea  and  disgust, 
against  cleanliness,  against  every  consideration  of 
health  and  comfort,  thousands  every  year  bow  the 
neck  to  this  drug  and  consent  to  wear  its  repul- 
sive yoke." 

The  president  of  one  of  the  Cambridge  col- 
leges, England:  "Smoking  demoralizes  people 
more  than  drinking ;  when  young  it  makes  them 
skulk,  and  when  grown  up  it  makes  them  rude 
and  careless  of  the  feelings  of  others." 

President  John  Bascom :  "  Ugly  and  unclean  ! 
An  indulgence  that  holds  in  its  right  hand  a  sting- 


ing curse." 


Rev.  Dr.  Dexter,  of  the  "  Congregationalist :  "  "I 
never  in  my  life  used  tobacco  in  any  form  except 
to  burn  it  on  a  hot  shovel  with  malice  aforethought 
towards  certain  bugs  which  infested  my  conserva- 
tory. Were  I  to  live  my  life  over  again,  I  don't 
think  I  should  alter  it  in  this  respect,  except  to 
try  something  else  on  the  bugs." 

Madame  de  Stael :  "Smokers  cease  to  think." 
Dr.  Nichols,  in  the  "Herald  of  Health:"  "To- 
bacco makes  man  selfish,  unmannerly,  and  in  cer- 
tain ways  what  is  called  brutal.  A  smoker  will 
carry  his  disgusting  odor  into  any  company,  and 
show  himself  utterly  callous  to  the  rights  of  others. 


290  TOBACCO. 

.  .  .  There  is  no  doubt  that  thousands  of  delicate 
women  and  children  are  seriously,  if  not  fatally, 
injured  by  this  stupid  selfishness  of  men,  which  is 
the  direct  result  of  nicotine  poison." 

Ruskin,  "Queen  of  the  Air:"  "It  is  not  easy 
to  estimate  the  demoralizing  effect  on  youth  of 
the  cigar.  Tobacco  is  the  worst  natural  curse  of 
modern  civilization,  and  belongs  to  a  tribe  of  ven- 
omous plants,  having  the  deadly  nightshade  for  its 
queen,  and  including  the  henbane  and  the  witch's 
mandrake." 

From  "  The  Resources  of  Siberia  : "  "  Among  the 
Buddhists  in  this  country  tobacco  is  strictly  for- 
bidden, the  priests  affirming  that  it  is  conducive 
to  indolence,  and  tends  to  waste  the  hours  which 
we  are  able  to  spare  from  the  serious  occupations 
of  life." 

"Tobacco,  like  alcohol,  is  a  nerve  stimulant," 
and,  as  Rev.  Dr.  Monger  says,  "stimulated  nerve 
means  at  last  irritated  nerves,  and  irritated  nerves 
clamor  forever.  And  being  unnaturally  irritated 
and  strung  into  undue  action,  they  lose  their  force, 
which  is  a  loss  of  vitality." 

Prof.  Montegazza :  "  It  takes  ages  for  ideas  of 
justice  to  become  prevalent,  even  in  the  most 
civilized  states ;  it  has  taken  only  three  hundred 
years  for  a  fetid  herb  to  conquer  the  world." 

From  many  recent  letters  on  this  subject  sent 
the  writer,  the  following  extracts  are  given :  — 

Dr.  John  Blackmer,  Springfield,   July,   1892 : 


APPENDIX.  291 

"That  the  nervous  system  which  was  blunted 
by  nicotine  is  not  so  keen  and  sharp  for  mental 
work  as  it  otherwise  would  be,  is  abundantly  estab- 
lished. The  habitual  use  of  tobacco  is  weighted 
in  the  intellectual  race.  It  accelerates  the  respir- 
ation, produces  morbid  changes  in  the  blood-cor- 
puscles, disturbs  digestion,  occasions  defective 
nutrition,  lessens  the  power  of  the  heart,  impairs 
nervous  energy,  not  only  in  the  special  nerves  of 
seeing,  hearing,  smelling,  and  touching,  but  also 
in  the  ordinary  nerves  both  of  sensation  and  of 
motion,  inducing  in  some  instances  partial  or  com- 
plete paralysis,  and  also  insanity. 

"The  strongest  indictment,  however,  against 
tobacco  is  that  it  makes  one  a  slave.  A  man  of 
forty-five  came  to  me  one  day  with  serious  disease 
of  the  heart.  After  an  examination  I  asked, f  Why 
don't  you  leave  off  smoking?'  'Oh,  I  wish  I 
could.'  'Do  you  mean  to  say  that  you  really 
cannot  do  it  ?  '  f  That  is  just  what  I  mean  ;  I  am 
a  slave,  bound  hand  and  foot.  I  could  have  broken 
away  once.  I  cannot  now.'  And  he  went  to  an 
untimely  grave.  What  a  slavery  is  that  which 
holds  a  man  to  the  very  doors  of  the  sepulchre  and 
will  not  let  him  £0  till  the  orrave  closes  over  him  !  " 

Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg,  Sanitarium  at  Battle  Creek, 
Michigan,  September  8,  1892:  "In  my  opinion 
the  tobacco  habit  is  the  worst  vice  of  civilization." 

Bishop  Coxe,  of  Western  New  York,  April, 
1892:    "I  feel   strongly  on  the   subject  and  am 


292  TOBACCO. 

pained  that  so  many  men  much  better  than  myself 
look  at  the  matter  in  a  very  different  light,  argu- 
ing that  the  abuse  and  not  the  use  is  blameworthy, 
and  that  a  moderate  indulgence  is  an  aid  to  some 
constitutions.  It  is  hard  for  me,  with  due  respect 
for  such  men,  to  express  all  I  feel  about  this  dirty 
smoking  habit." 

Rev.  Mr.  Southgate,  'Worcester:  "I  dread  the 
crop  of  suffering  and  sin  which  is  yet  to  be  reaped 
when  this  generation  of  smokers  has  shown  itself 
and  its  penalties  to  the  world.  It  is  a  tremendous 
fight,  but  reinforcements  must  come.  I  hope  all 
Christian  people,  and  especially  parents  and  teach- 
ers, will  go  at  the  curse." 

Rev.  S.  Robert,  a  Catholic  priest,  St.  Boniface 
College,  St.  Boniface,  Canada  :  "  Tobacco  is  a  bad 
tree  which  produces  bad  fruit,  and  the  worst  of 
these  bad  fruits  is  the  destruction  of  the  reasoning 
power  in  man.  Paralyzing  as  it  does  the  tissues 
and  the  muscles  in  the  human  body,  it  necessarily 
follows  that  the  brain  and  the  heart  become  more 
or  less  paralyzed.  Hence  the  weakness  of  the 
intelligence  to  reflect  and  of  the  heart  to  take  any 
determination  against  tobacco.  Therefore,  I  am 
very  much  afraid  of  breathing  the  poisoning  to- 
bacco smoke  for  any  length  of  time.  But  my  con- 
solation is  for  the  future  life,  for  I  am  confident 
there  will  be  no  such  smoke  in  heaven.  On  the 
contrary,  I  am  very  much  inclined  to  believe  that 
hell  will  be  the  smoking  room  of  eternity." 


APPENDIX.  293 

Dr.  M.  Hammond,  Baltimore,  Md.  :  "As  a  phy- 
sician of  forty  years'  practice,  I  give  my  decided 
opinion  that  tobacco  ha3  killed  ten  men  where 
whiskey  has  killed  one.  This,  no  doubt,  will  be 
disputed  by  physicians  who  indulge  in  the  weed, 
but  I  believe  it  can  be  demonstrated  that  many  of 
the  chronic  diseases  to  which  the  male  population 
are  subject  owe  their  origin  to  tobacco.  Thou- 
sands of  boys  to-day  are  suffering  from  the  use  of 
the  cigarette,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  rejection  of  so 
many  by  the  Naval  and  Army  Boards." 

Dr.  C.  M.  Culver,  an  oculist  of  Albany,  Sept- 
ember 3,  1892  :  "I  occasionally  see  a  patient  who 
has  the  choice  between  discontinuing  the  use  of 
tobacco  and  becoming  blind.  I  have  known  some 
such  patients  stop  the  tobacco  and  recover  vision, 
because  of  such  abstinence.  Many,  however,  un- 
happily choose  the  tobacco  and  become  blind.  I 
have  had  much  experience  with  the  weed,  having 
used  it  myself  intemperately,  as  well  as  studied  its 
effect  on  others.  For  more  than  five  years  I  have 
been  a  total  abstainer.  My  experience  and  study 
lead  me  to  oppose  the  use  of  tobacco." 

Dr.  Hiram  Orcutt,  Boston,  July,  1892  :  "There 
is  but  one  place  in  the  wide  world  where  a  man 
can  properly  smoke,  and  that  is  the  desert  of 
Sahara." 

Hon.  Xeal  Dow,  Portland,  June,  1892  :  "There 
is  no  doubt  that  the  tobacco  habit  deadens  the 
moral  sense  in  every  one  who  is  its  victim  ;  many 


294  TOBACCO. 

of  them  are  not  aware  of  it,  but  it  is  certainly  true. 
It  is  a  gross,  vulgar  habit,  without  the  excuse  that 
drinkers  have.  Liquors  can  be  made  good  to 
every  beginner,  but  the  tobacco  slave  acquires 
the  habit  only  after  a  desperate  struggle  with  loath- 
ing and  disgust,  more  or  less  prolonged." 

Dr.  William  B.  Hidden,  Baltimore,  August, 
!*!>:? :  "The  heart  is  the  engine  of  the  human 
body.  The  arteries  are  the  hose.  To  increase  the 
power  of  the  engine  and  not  strengthen  the  hose 
correspondingly  means  disaster.  Tobacco  lessens 
the  frequency  of  the  heart's  action  and  increases 
its  force,  so  that  any  excitement  or  a  hearty  meal 
is  liable  at  any  moment  to  burst  the  arteries  of  the 
brain  where  they  are  least  protected ;  hence  the 
tobacco  devotee  is  liable  to  sudden  death." 

Dr.  Anderson  of  the  McAll  Mission,  member 
of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons,  England  :  "All 
the  cases  of  cancer  of  the  mouth  that  I  have  come 
across,  and  they  are  pretty  numerous,  have  been 
started  by  the  pipe,  cigar,  or  cigarette  ;  and  almost 
all  the  male  neuralgic  patients  that  I  have  seen  in 
the  London  and  Paris  hospitals,  as  well  as  a  third 
of  the  cases  of  heart  disease  that  have  come  under 
my  notice,  were  smokers.  As  you  are  aware,  at 
the  McAll  Dispensary,  I  have  the  opportunity  of 
seeing  over  a  hundred  and  fifty  fresh  patients  each 
week." 

Dr.  Charles  E.  Drysdale,  senior  physician  to  the 
Metropolitan  Hospital,  London,  May,  1892  :  "The 


APPENDIX.  295 

majority  of  medical  men  here  are  anti-tobacco ; 
but  there  is,  I  regret  to  say,  a  minority  who  set  a 
very  bad  example  in  this  respect.  For  I  have 
always  maintained  that  as  it  is  particularly  dis- 
graceful for  clergymen  to  be  untruthful,  so  it  is  a 
disgrace  to  any  practitioner  of  the  healing  art  to 
make  daily  use  of  what  is  injurious  to  health,  and 
thereby  invite  others  to  do  the  same.  My  opin- 
ion, based  on  a  prolonged  study  of  diseases  of  my 
own  sex,  is  that  one  of  the  most  common  causes  of 
deteriorated  health  is  to  be  found  in  the  practices 
of  smoking,  chewing  or  snuffing.  Among  the  dis- 
eases resulting  from  the  tobacco  habit  are  cancer 
of  the  lip  and  tongue  and  even  of  the  larynx,  weak- 
ness of  sight,  sometimes  ending  in  blindness,  func- 
tional diseases  of  the  heart  and  nervous  affections. 
Mr.  Goschen,  our  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer, 
has  just  informed  us  that  the  consumption  of  to- 
bacco per  head  in  the  United  Kingdom  is  double 
what  it  was  fifty  years  ago.  Some  of  our  ladies 
indulge  in  cigarettes,  and  at  a  new  ladies'  club, 
recently  formed,  there  will  probably  be  a  room  set 
apart  for  smokers  as  there  is  in  gentlemen's  clubs. 
This  smoking  habit  is  one  of  the  greatest  hygienic 
delinquencies  of  modern  civilization." 

Dr.  Benjamin  Ward  Richardson,  London,  a 
physician  of  the  highest  authority,  July,  1892  : 
"  My  views  expressed  many  years  ago  respecting 
the  action  of  tobacco  on  the  human  body  have  been 
confirmed  in  every  way  by  later  and  continued 


29(3  tobacco. 

observations.  I  have  no  doubt  that  smoking  in- 
terferes with  the  proper  development  both  of  the 
physical  and  mental  powers  of  the  young  and  that 
it  injuriously  disturbs  the  same  powers  in  persons 
of  mature  age." 

Dr.  Jay  W.  Seaver,  Yale  University,  May  26, 
1891:  "The  evidence  regarding  the  influence  of 
tobacco  on  physical  growth  is,  I  believe,  incontro- 
vertible, and  seriously  against  the  tobacco  user. 
I  continually  have  advised  against  its  use  both  as 
a  teacher  and  physician,  and  I  now  feel  as  though 
I  had  an  argument  that  was  conclusive  and  scien- 
tific, and  that  would  appeal  to  growing  boys.  This 
matter  has  long  been  recognized  by  athletes,  and 
met  in  a  practical  way  by  absolutely  forbidding 
tobacco  to  persons  in  training." 

Prof.  Edward  Hitchcock,  Amherst  College,  Sep- 
tember 20,  1892  :  "I  send  a  scrap  on  the  tobacco 
question  :  "  "  The  matter  of  tobacco  smoking  as  an 
influence  upon  the  physical  development  of  Am- 
herst students  has  been  studied  in  the  history  of 
the  class  of  '91.  Of  this  class,  71  per  cent,  have 
increased  in  their  measurements  and  tests  during 
their  whole  course,  while  29  per  cent,  have  re- 
mained stationary  or  have  fallen  off.  In  separa- 
ting the  smokers  from  the  non-smokers,  it  appears 
that  in  the  item  of  weight  the  non-smokers  have 
increased  24  per  cent,  more  than  the  smokers ; 
in  height  they  have  surpassed  them  37  per  cent., 
and  in  chest  girth  42  per  cent.    And  in  lung  capac- 


APPENDIX.  297 

ity  there  is  a  difference  of  8.36  cubic  inches  in  favor 
of  the  non-smokers,  which  is  3  per  cent,  of  the 
total  average  lung  capacity  of  the  class." 

President  M.  H.  Buckham,  University  of  Ver- 
mont, Burlington,  October  20,  1892  :  "The  use  of 
tobacco  is  much  less  prevalent  here  now  than  for- 
merly. Free  scholarships  are  conditioned  on  the 
recipients'  agreement  not  to  indulge  in  f  the  use  of 
tobacco  and  in  other  expensive  habits.' " 

President  Warren,  Boston  University,  October 
18,  1892  :  "Since  the  year  1880,  by  authority  of 
the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church,  every  minister,  when  taking  the  vows 
required  for  admission  as  a  full  member  of  the  cler- 
ical body,  is  publicly  asked,  'Will  you  wholly 
abstain  from  the  use  of  tobacco  ? '  and  is  expected 
to  respond  in  the  affirmative.  Some  of  our  minis- 
ters in  middle  life  and  beyond  make  some  use  of 
the  weed,  but  I  know  of  none  in  the  younger  gen- 
eration. Even  such  of  the  fathers  as  are  addicted 
to  the  habit  find  it  necessary  to  be  very  circum- 
spect that  they  may  not  give  offence,  or  be  under- 
stood to  set  a  bad  example.  In  a  few  years,  I 
think  the  whole  body  will  be  in  this  respect  the 
cleanest  ministerial  body  of  like  numbers  in  the 
world.  For  this  we  will  thank  God  and  take 
courage." 

Among  the  General  Rules  of  the  School  of  The- 
ology in  the  Boston  University  is  the  following : 


298  TOBACCO. 

"3.  Xo  user  of  tobacco  is  considered  a  candidate 
for  membership  in  this  school." 

President  Eliot,  Harvard  University,  Cambridge, 
October  16,  1802  :  "The  latest  statistics  as  to  the 
use  of  tobacco  by  Harvard  students  which  I  have 
seen  are  those  relating  to  the  class  which  took  the 
degree  of  A.B.  in  June,  1891.  This  class  num- 
bered 293  members.  To  the  question,  'Do  you 
smoke?'  125  replied,  'Xo;'  123,  'Yes;'  19, 'Oc- 
casionally,' and  13,  'Rarely.' 

President  William  De  W.  Hyde,  Bowdoin  Col- 
lege, Brunswick,  Me.,  October  2,  1892:  "In 
reply  to  your  inquiry,  permit  me  to  repeat  what  I 
have  said  in  a  little  book  on  '  Practical  Ethics.' 
1  The  use  of  tobacco  is  the  exception  with  scholars 
at  the  head,  and  the  rule  with  scholars  at  the  foot, 
of  the  class.  Shortly  after  we  began  to  take  statis- 
tics on  this  point,  I  asked  the  director  of  the  gym- 
nasium what  was  the  result  with  the  freshman 
class.  'Oh,'  he  said,  '  the  list  of  the  smokers  is  sub- 
stantially the  same  as  that  which  was  reported  the 
other  day  for  deficiencies  in  scholarship.'  .  .  .  Xo 
candidate  for  a  college  athletic  team,  or  contestant  in 
a  race,  would  think  of  using  tobacco  while  in  train- 
ing. Every  man  who  wishes  to  keep  himself  in 
training  for  the  highest  prizes  in  business  and  pro- 
fessional life  must  guard  his  early  years  from  the 
deterioration  which  this  habit  invariably  brings." 

President  Franklin  Carter,  TTilliams  College, 
October  3,  1892  :  "I  believe  that  the  use  of  tobac- 


APPENDIX.  299 

c°  by  young  men  is  a  form  of  self-indulgence, 
greatly  hindering  the  best  physical,  intellectual 
and  moral  development ;  that  as  self-indulgence  it  is 
always  likely  to  break  down  the  proper  sense  of 
proportion  in  values  and  to  lead  to  other  more 
pernicious  habits.  Its  banishment  from  our  schools 
and  colleges  would,  in  my  judgment,  effect  a  great 
increase  in  the  usefulness  of  educated  men  and  give 
new  tone  and  power  everywhere  to  those  who 
work  for  the  best  things." 

President  E.  B.  Andrew,  Brown  University, 
Providence  :  "  Too  many  of  our  young  men  smoke, 
but  I  am  inclined  to  think  the  number  less  and 
less  from  to  year  to  year.  My  influence  against 
this  habit  I  make  as  strong  as  possible." 

President  Rankin,  D.D.,  L.L.D.,  Howard  Uni- 
versity, Washington,  D.C.,  October  11,  1892: 
"  We  do  not  allow  the  use  of  tobacco  on  the  univer- 
sity premises,  and  no  student  can  have  help  from 
the  Aid  Fund,  who  indulges  in  the  habit.  I  re- 
gard it  as  the  most  selfish  and  ungentlemanly  habit 
a  young  man  can  form." 

Rev.  George  A.  Jackson,  Swampscott,  Mass., 
October  10,  1892:  w  Setting  forth  as  you  do  the 
facts,  your  appeal  to  the  chivalrous  instincts  of 
young  men  to  give  up  that  which  brings  such  dis- 
comfort to  others  will  not  be  in  vain." 

Rev.  B.  Fay  Mills,  the  Evangelist,  April,  1892  : 
"I  am  deeply  interested  in  your  efforts  to  promote 
cleanliness  and  practical  righteousness.     I  former- 


300  TOBACCO. 

ly  used  tobacco  myself,  but  was  forced  to  abandon 
it  entirely  when  I  realized  that  it  was  simply  a 
question  of  how  godlike  a  man  I  proposed  to  be." 

Prof.  Ruggles,  of  Dartmouth  College,  Hanover, 
N.H.  :  "All  those  receiving  aid  from  college  funds 
promise  to  abstain  from  the  use  of  tobacco.  Sev- 
eral scholarships  have  been  founded  on  this  basis." 

Rev.  Edward  A,  Lawrence,  Baltimore,  October 
3,  1892  :  "The  aesthetic  abhorrence  which  most  of 
those  who  do  not  use  tobacco  feel  for  the  weed  is 
usually  more  deep  than  loud.  The  many  mute 
sufferers,  therefore,  have  reason  to  thank  you  for 
voicing  their  protest  in  such  form  that  it  expresses 
in  emphatic  words  both  the  discomfort  which  it 
brings  to  the  innocent  victims  and  the  disrepute 
which  it  brings  to  the  offending  victims." 

Rev.  Dr.  J.  H.  Ecob,  Albany,  September  29, 
1892  :  "To  give  carte  blanche  to  one  bad  habit  is 
to  make  easy  the  entrance  of  the  next  comer.  For 
there  seems  to  be  a  sort  of  free-masonry  among 
bad  habits  ;  no  sooner  does  one  get  possession  than 
it  invites  seven  others.  Tobacco  is  the  enemy 
within  who  secretly  conspires  to  pass  the  keys  of 
the  castle  to  the  invaders  without." 

FRANK   CONFESSIONS . 

A  friend  in  the  Revenue  Service  who  is  an  invet- 
erate smoker  has  given  me  one  of  his  experiences  : 

"In  the  summer  of  1878,  while  at  Charleston, 
S.C.,  I  was  attacked  with  malarial  fever,  and  sent 


APPENDIX.  301 

for  a  doctor,  who  put  me  to  bed,  giving  me  medi- 
cine that  caused  profuse  perspiration.  At  the  end 
of  three  days  the  fever  was  broken  up  and  I  was 
able  to  leave  my  bed.  On  calling  the  doctor's  at- 
tention to  the  brown  sheets,  he  remarked,  'Oh, 
that  is  nicotine,'  as,  indeed,  the  strong  tobacco 
odor  indicated." 

.  In  answer  to  the  inquiry  "Does  smoking  tend 
to  make  one  selfish  ?  "  the  same  man  frankly  replies, 
August,  1892  : 

"All  smokers  are  selfish.  The  mother  has  to 
hear  the  boy's  lessons,  to  drive  nails,  — pounding 
her  thumb,  of  course, —  and  do  many  things  that 
belong  to  the  father,  because  his  f smoke'  must 
not  be  interfered  with.  He  declines  to  make  calls, 
pleading  that  he  is  tired,  or  that  he  doesn't  know 
the  parties,  while  the  true  reason  is  that  it  may 
deprive  him  of  a  'good  smoke.'  From  the  cigar- 
ette to  the  mild  cigar,  from  the  mild  to  a  stronger 
one ;  this  is  the  way  the  habit  grows,  and  continues 
to  grow  by  the  increased  number  of  smokes  and 
the  use  of  stronger  tobacco,  although  a  new  and 
strange  brand  will  sometimes  make  the  head  swim 
even  of  the  old  veteran." 

Remember  it  is  a  smoker  who  gives  this  picture  ! 

"  Does  smoking  promote  sociability,  and  in  such 
a  sense  that  it  may  be  regarded  as  a  tobacco  bene- 
fit ?  "  To  this  question  he  again  responds  :  "  Smok- 
ing does  promote  sociability,  but  it  is  rarely  help- 
ful or  instructive.     In  smoking-cars,  it  promotes 


302  TOBACCO. 

the  telling  of  stories  of  sometimes  doubtful  import, 
and  brings  one  into  contact  with  gamblers  and 
toughs." 

Another  reply  to  the  same  question  comes  from 
Port  Huron :  "Yes,  I  must  admit  that  the  use  of 
tobacco  tends  to  make  men  more  social ;  while  on 
the  Pacific  coast,  I  saw  that  kind  of  social  life  in 
car-load  lots ;  in  fact,  it  was  to  be  obtained  by  the 
train-load.  The  bulk  of  this  kind  of  sociability 
consists  of  gambling,  profane  and  obscene  language, 
bawdy  yarns,  sensuous  nonsense,  and  ill-timed  re- 
partee." 

And  another  from  Chicago  :  N  Of  course  smok- 
ing encourages  sociability ;  so  does  gambling  and 
drinking.  A  company  of  men  smoking  in  a  room 
are  very  sociable,  and  there  is  generally,  besides 
politics,  an  almost  invariable  flow  of  profanity  and 
obscenity,  and  an  excellent  chance  for  smutty 
stories,  and  when  once  started,  the  earth  is  raked 
for  material,  each  trying  to  excel  the  other." 

TOBACCO    AXD    CRIME. 

From  "The  Criminal,"  by  Havelock  Ellis,  p. 
120:  "It  is  worthy  of  note  that  criminals  begin 
to  use  tobacco  at  an  early  age.  Thus,  among  a 
population  which  normally  begin  to  smoke  before 
the  age  of  thirty  in  the  proportion  of  14  per 
cent,  (and  the  insane  7.2  per  cent.) ,  22  per  cent,  of 
criminals   smoke   before   the    age   of  thirty,   and 


APPENDIX.  303 

nearly  all  (279  out  of  300  males,  and  32  out  of  32 
women)  before  entering  prison. 

Venturi*  found  tobacco  used  by  14.3  per  cent,  of 
criminal  men,  15.9  of  criminal  women. 

Marambatf  concluded  that  the  love  of  tobacco 
was  the  first  passion  that  rooted  itself  in  the  youth- 
ful criminal.  Out  of  603  juvenile  delinquents  be- 
tween the  ages  of  eight  and  fifteen,  51  per  cent, 
had  acquired  the  custom  of  using  tobacco  before 
their  detention." 

In  the  Auburn  state's  prison,  five  hundred  out 
of  six  hundred  convicts  confessed  that  they  began 
the  career  which  brought  them  there,  by  the  to- 
bacco habit. 

TOBACCO    STATISTICS. 

Total  tobacco  crop  raised  in  1888,  as  estimated 
by  the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture  : 

Area,  747,326  acres. 

Product,  565,795,000  pounds. 

Value,  43,666,665  dollars. 

Report  of  Internal  Eevenue  Department  gives 
the  following  amounts  of  tobacco  on  which  taxes 
were  paid  in  the  year  ending  June  3,  1892  :  — 

Number  of  cigars,  cheroots  and  heavy  cigarettes, 
4,548,797,417. 

Number  of  light  cigarettes,  2,892,982,840. 

Total,  7,441,782,257. 

Pounds  of  snuff,  11,164,351. 

*  "  Studio  sultabacco  nei  pazzi  e  nei  criminali." 
t  "Revue  Scientifique,"  1889. 


304  TOBACCO. 

Pounds  of  tobacco  for  chewing  and  smoking, 
253,962,139. 

Total,  265,126,490. 

The  taxes  on  this  tobacco  were  $31,000,493.07. 

The  amount  expended  annually  in  the  United 
States  for  tobacco  is  $600,000,000,  while  in  Chi- 
cago $24,500  are  daily  spent  for  cigars  alone. 

The  tobacco  revenue  which  Great  Britain  re- 
ceived during  the  last  year  was  10,135,666  pounds, 
or  49,056,623  dollars. 

CHEERING    ITEMS. 

In  the  thick  clouds  of  discouragement  that  sur- 
round this  tobacco  subject,  there  are  a  few  rifts 
through  which  the  light  is  breaking. 

A  Senate  committee  on  epidemic  diseases  has 
recommended  to  Congress  the  prohibition  of  for- 
eign cigarettes  and  of  their  sale  in  the  District  of 
Columbia  and  in  the  territories. 

LIFE   INSURANCE. 

There  is  encouragement  in  the  fact  that  life  insur- 
ance companies  are  coming  more  and  more  to  under- 
stand the  effect  of  tobacco  upon  the  health,  and 
especially  the  liability  to  sudden  deaths  from  the 
f' tobacco  heart."  The  following  instance  is  given 
on  the  authority  of  a  well-known  smoker :  "  The 
North  TTestern  Life  Insurance  Company  refused 
to  insure  an  applicant,  of  whose  condition  they 
were  aware,  unless  he  would  absolutely  renounce 


APPENDIX.  305 

tobacco.  Declining  to  do  this,  he  applied  to  the 
New  York  Life  Insurance,  but  that  company  made 
the  same  requirement." 

Says  Dr.  L.  R.  Jerome,  La  Grange,  HI.  :  "For 
twenty  years  I  have  been  largely  engaged  in  med- 
ical examinations  for  life  insurance,  and  it  is  aston- 
ishing how  many  men  have  the  'tobacco  heart.' 
Insurance  companies  are  beginning  to  see  the  dan- 
ger of  such  symptoms  and  to  reject  for  that  cause." 

STREET    CAR   SMOKING. 

The  nuisance  of  street  car  smoking  has  become 
so  intolerable  that  the  travelling  public,  whose 
patience  in  all  this  matter  has  been  amazing,  is 
becoming  aroused.  Appeals  to  the  officials  con- 
cerned have  proved  ineffective  from  the  persistence 
of  offenders  and  the  reluctance  of  conductors  and 
corporations  to  displease  their  patrons.  The  press, 
however,  has  at  last  attacked  the  nuisance,  and 
if  the  warfare  is  vigorously  continued,  street-car 
smoking  will  certainly  be  banished. 

NO    SMOKING    ALLOWED. 

This  salutary  interdiction  is  being  posted  in 
some  of  our  factories,  owing  to  the  higher  prem- 
ium that  our  insurance  companies  are  beginning 
to  require  of  the  manufacturers  who  allow  smoking 
in  their  establishments.  May  this  wholesome  pro- 
scription be  introduced  into  every  factory  through- 
out the  land ! 


306  TOBACCO. 

A    TOBACCO    RESOLUTION    BY    THE    GENERAL    PRES- 
BYTERIAN   ASSEMBLY. 

In  the  minutes  of  this  body  held  at  Portland, 
Oregon,  May,  1892,  it  is  stated  that  "The  As- 
sembly earnestly  called  the  serious  attention  of 
its  ministers  and  elders  and  students  to  the  very 
apparent  propriety  and  pressing  importance  of 
total  abstinence  from  the  tobacco  habit.'' 

Although  w  the  resolution  was  voted  upon  amidst 
the  derisive  shoutings"  of  many  smoking  elders 
and  clergymen,  yet  that  a  tobacco  resolution  was 
adopted  by  the  Assembly  is  surely  a  sign  of  pro- 
gress. 

A    CHEERING    WORD   FROM   PRUSSIA. 

In  consequence  of  numerous  complaints  by  non- 
smokers  that  they  receive  no  consideration  on  the 
Prussian  state  railways,  the  Minister  of  Public 
Works  has  ordered  that  in  half  the  second-class 
compartments,  exclusive  of  those  reserved  for 
women,  smoking  shall  be  prohibited.  A  move- 
ment has  been  started  also  to  secure  an  order 
against  pipe  smoking  on  railway  traffic.  Some 
time  ago  the  government  ordered  that  only  pipes 
with  covers  on  the  bowls  should  be  allowed,  but 
this  concession  to  non-smokers  has  not  satisfied 
them,  and  they  are  now  overwhelming  the  Depart- 
ment of  Public  \Vorks  with  petitions  against  the 
toleration  of  pipe  smoking  at  all. 


APPENDIX. 


307 


A    HIGH    IDEAL. 

In  compliance  with  my  request,  I  am  kindly 
permitted  to  give  the  following  from  a  private 
letter  by  Mr.  James  MacArthur,  of  New  York, 
September  24,  1892.  Would  that  I  could  receive 
a  hundred  thousand  similar  letters  ! 

"  I  have  been  a  votary  of  Charles  Lamb's  am- 
brosial weed,  but  have  eschewed  the  practice  for 
the  sake,  chiefly,  of  being  free  from  a  slavish  habit 
and  of  having  a  purer  example  to  set  to  my  com- 
panions in  life.  These  motives  have  succeeded 
when  all  others  failed." 


UNIQUE    SACRIFICE. 


Away  beyond  Denniston,  England,  in  a  lonely 
coal-miner's  hut  upon  a  hill,  is  the  following  curi- 
ous sign,  which  was  put  up  by  the  owner  some 


months  ago :  — 


_n 


TOBACCO 
June  2"), 


CRUCIFIED, 

1891. 


The  cross  is  composed  of  two  sticks  of  tobacco, 


568  TOBACCO. 

placed  crosswise  and  securely  nailed,  and  under- 
neath is  the  inscription  :  — 

•'  Thou  subtle  enemy,  thou  hast  held  me  fast, 
But  now  I'm  freed  from  thee  at  last; 
Thou  hast  cost  me  £3  10s.  each  year, 
But  I  consider  thou  art  far  too  dear! " 

UNFLINCHING    PRINCIPLE. 

A  standing  offer  of  fifteen  hundred  dollars  a 
month  was  made  to  the  directors  of  the  grand  tem- 
perance temple  in  Chicago  for  the  privilege  of 
placing  an  elegant  tobacco  stand  in  the  marble  cor- 
ridor of  the  rotunda.  But  in  spite  of  their  press- 
ing need  of  money,  Mrs.  Matilda  B.  Carse,  chief 
manager  of  the  temple  affairs,  without  a  moment's 
hesitation,  responded:  "Never,  not  if  fifty  thou- 
sand dollars  were  offered  ;  we  are  not  poor  enough 
to  permit  the  sale  of  that  vile  weed  under  this  roof." 

THE    GREAT    CONVENTION. 

The  rumors  as  to  the  virtuous  tobacco  abstinence 
of  the  thousands  of  Christian  Endeavorers  who 
attended  the  grand  Xew  York  Convention  were  so 
marvellous  that  I  dared  not  put  them  in  print  till 
I  had  made  inquiries  of  Father  Endeavor  himself. 
His  response  is  a  truly  cheering  prophecy  of  future 
possibilities  : 

Boston,  July  27,  1892. 
Dear  Mrs.  Lawrence : 

I  think  it  is  safe  for  you  to  say  that  so  far  as 
can  be  ascertained  there  was  no  smoking  among 


APPENDIX.  309 

the  delegates  at  the  Christian  Endeavor  conven- 
tion. There  may  have  been  some  who  indulged 
in  a  cigar,  but  I  did  not  see  any  one  or  hear  of 
any  one.  There  were  no  smoking  cars  on  most  of 
the  excursion  trains,  and  where  there  was  one,  I 
understand  it  was  not  patronized.  There  is  no 
way,  of  course,  of  verifying  any  absolute  state- 
ment in  regard  to  all  the  40,000  young  people  who 
were  present,  but  in  a  general  way  it  would  be 
safe  to  say  that  there  was  no  smoking. 
Sincerely  yours, 

Francis  E.  Clark. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

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